In my sons eyes
by TheRobinsNest
Summary: Baby!Dick and Daddy!Bruce. Dick is Bruce's biological son. Shorts of Dick as a baby. Fluff.
1. The Beginning pt 1

**In my sons eyes**

**Summary:** Baby!Dick and Daddy!Bruce. Dick is Bruce's biological son. Shorts of Dick as a baby.

**Disclaimer: **Do not own.

* * *

"In my [sons] eyes,  
I am a hero,  
I am strong and wise,  
And I know no fear,  
But the truth is plain to see,  
He was sent to rescue me,  
I see who I want to be,  
In my [sons] eyes…"

Martina McBride "In my daughter's eyes"

* * *

There were a few times in his life that Bruce Wayne had been truly terrified; the day his parents were murdered in front of him had always been number one, coupled with the nightmares that plagued him since that day was another. Then there was also the first time he had met and fought Joker along with the other criminals that had grown more psychotic every time he fought them, but this: This was different. The thing that terrified Bruce Wayne aka Batman at the moment was a tiny bundle in the middle of his bed. Bruce stared at the baby wrapped up in a pastel blue blanket as his thoughts turned to the scene only moments ago.

For a man who could boast about having a near photographic memory (courtesy of the long years of hard work) the incident was all but a blur. The only things he could remember was pain-filled green eyes and a choked whisper that changed his life in mere seconds.

"He's your son Bruce."

_His _son.

The baby, which had been carefully but suddenly handed to him was_ his_ son.

He had stood there long after she had left; her mumbled words explaining that she could no longer look after him. Her eyes; sad and tender at the same time strayed at the baby a second longer before she turned around and quickly disappeared, leaving him in front of his own mansion with the squirming infant in his hands.

He remembered looking down, his eyes widening at the sight. The baby looked no older than a few months, though his hair was unusually thick, it fell across his tiny forehead while some curled around his round face. His chubby cheeks were smooth and lightly painted pink in a rosy blush. A small button nose and full pouty lips completed the tiny face. It was when the baby whimpered, his face scrunching up in a frown before it slowly opened his eyes that Bruce forgot to breathe.

The older man braced himself as terror pierced through his chest straight to his heart. Bruce didn't know what to expect. As Batman he had always been so confident that he had planned everything out in his life, even when he knew that not all of those plans would work. Still, at least he had a plan to fall back on.

He had always been so cautious too, convinced that this would never happen. He was a fool to think it impossible, not when the evidence was clear in his arms.

With another whimper that stole away his focus from his panicked calculations. Bruce waited as not a second later he was staring at a pair of very familiar eyes. Eyes, the same shade of indescribable blue that he had seen on his mother and the same eyes that stared back at him every time he looked into a mirror. This boy, this baby was his son.

_His _son.

His _son. _

They both shared the same blood, the same DNA, the same eyes, things he had shared with his parents, and as he stared into those beautiful blues, for the first time in a long time Bruce didn't feel so alone.

"My son." He whispered softly, his voice choking a little as he lifted a finger to trace the infants rosy cheek. The warmth that had left his heart on the night his parents were murdered slowly began to spread through his chest, and Bruce knew he was in love.

**TBC…**


	2. The Beginning pt 2

**Note:** I want to thank all my wonderful reviewers, followers and readers. On a side not, I hope this story doesn't bore. It will most likely be short, only two or three mini stories with short drabbles in between. Unless of course, I think of other things to add. As for the question of maternity, well, lets just say, it can be anyone you want unless stated otherwise. After several add-ons and corrections I am still not satisfied with this chapter, however, I did not want to keep everyone waiting, so please enjoy and point out any mistakes I may have missed.

* * *

There was no one else on the world that could surprise the man of steel as much as a certain billionaire could. Of course when the other man (metaphorically and literally) dropped the bomb on him it was usually in his other persona, under a dark cowl accompanied by a harsh glare.

So when he was personally called into the office of Daily Planet's Editor-in-chief Perry White with news that Bruce Wayne himself called for him, there was something about it that just didn't sit right with Clark. He had only stayed long enough to hear that Bruce wanted to have a private meeting with him in his manor before he stood and ran out of the office, ignoring Lois' shouts for him to wait for her.

He had shed his outer layer of clothing unmindful that it was not Superman that Bruce was asking for but Clark Kent.

What bothered him was the manner that Bruce had chosen to come to him. Why not just call him personally? Why go through his boss? Heart pounding he sped to the manor whilst his mind came up with several scenarios, all somehow ending in a bloody battle. He shook his head from the negative thoughts but kept at bay the fact that this was Gotham. Gotham was different. Her personality as unpredictable as her most demented villain; anything could happen there.

When he reached the manor however, he was greeted by Alfred as always although there was a certain twinkle in the old mans eyes that put his nerves on edge. The older gentleman nodded for him to enter as he held a change of clothes in one hand.

The faithful butler eyed his disheveled state, undoubtedly knowing that Clark had assumed the worse and rushed to the manor. It was a nice thought to the aging man to know that there was one friend of his master that would rush to his aid if ever he was in trouble. That did not however, excuse the rule he had set up about costumes inside the manor and he ushered the red and blue clad hero into a guest room to change.

After exchanging his clothes, he was led toward the familiar study and Clark forced himself not to use his x-ray vision to see what was going on. He waited patiently as the butler knocked politely announcing his presence before he nodded to him to enter. Without hesitation he opened the door. There he was met with the sight of Bruce Wayne with a tiny baby in his arms.

Wait.

Clark blinked, and for a second, thought that maybe he had somehow entered an alternate reality.

He stood there watching as Bruce tenderly held the baby in his arms; the tiny thing was clothed in a dark blue one piece pajama with a matching beanie. Dark blues looked up, the normally cold eyes looked softer than Clark had ever seen before; the same twinkle in those eyes that matched his butlers was quickly hidden.

"Clark." The billionaire started, going on like any other day, "I need a favor."

The _click_ of the door shutting behind him felt like the closing of a portal and it was then that he _knew_ he had entered an alternate reality.

* * *

Bruce had known that announcing to the world that he had a son was not going to be easy. The Paparazzi (especially in Gotham) were like starved lions prowling the jungle ready to attack anything they deemed juicy. He remembered his own experience with them: the bright flashes and cold eyes staring at him as he was shot question after question right after his parents' death. Their words, like bullets; had pierced through him without any sympathy. He had been afraid to step out of the mansion at that time, paranoid that any human bloodhound would jump out and attack him.

He knew all too well how celebrity journalists worked. They would do anything to be on the front page. It didn't matter to them if the person they had to harass was a young boy who just lost his parents. In Gotham, it was either you were at the very top or the very bottom, there was no in between. Which was why Bruce was not about to thrust his baby in the middle of it.

He knew once the world found out about his child many would question the infant's paternity. They would demand evidence, and even after evidence was found they would deny the claims. They would tear the story apart, distort the facts and then publish something with their own assumptions. It sickened Bruce how willing some people were to make money and it boiled his blood at the thought of someone willing enough to target a baby, especially if that baby was his.

This was what had pushed him to come up with this plan.

He was hesitant of course. Showing the world that he had an heir would surely prompt many to go after his helpless son. It was danger he knew that would continually follow Richard as he grew up, but he also knew that it would only be a matter of time before he was found out; which was where he found himself in front of one of Daily Planet's reporters. At least with Clark as the editor it would be under his rules and his terms. He could control what he wanted to share, while still able to protect his son.

Currently, the other man stood frozen by the door, his blue eyes which hid behind the thin framed glasses were focused on the story at hand.

"Is he…yours?" Clark asked, uncertainty seeping into the question. Bruce nodded, unable to say anything else

"Are…Are you sure?" Bruce nodded again. Even before he had taken the test Bruce already knew that Richard was his, like a gut instinct (a fatherly instinct). He knew without a doubt that Dick was _his_ son, but he knew that he still needed evidence. There was only one person he trusted enough to test him and his baby. Even though he had the equipment and skills for the test, he also needed a professional's signature and legal declaration, which he'd gotten.

Careful not to disturb the baby in his arms, he picked up the paternity tests on the table and slowly walked toward the taller man, handing him the papers.

Clark took the papers without a word but his attention was on the infant in his friends' arms. The tiny boy was wide awake, large crystal blue eyes turned to him. Clark wondered if the child's eyes were developed enough to see him as he curled himself on his fathers' broad chest, a thumb positioned in his mouth. The man of steel smiled softly at the baby as he noticed the tiny round ears on the boys' hat. It seemed unreal; slowly Clark lifted a finger ignoring the protective growl coming from the other man as he softly poked a puffy cheek, amazed at the softness.

Bruce frowned as the baby whimpered at the disturbance.

"He's not a doll Kent." The father snapped which Clark quickly pulled back, holding his hands in surrender at the piercing glare.

"Sorry, it's just…you and a baby. How did that happen?" The other man raised an eyebrow, amusement and annoyance conveyed in the simple gesture. Clark felt his face burn with embarrassment when realized what he had asked.

"I mean I know how-but- I meant…" The reporter sputtered before stopping altogether, instead turning his focus on the papers in his hands. Baby blue eyes scanned through the document, roaming through the biology before it settled on the numbers on the bottom.

_Probability of Parentage: 99.999% _and underneath that was the elegant signature of one Leslie Thompkins. Just like a punch to the gut that could knock Superman to his knees he finally realized why he was here, as he had already pieced together what Bruce was asking from him.

"You…you want me to be the one to introduce him to the world?" The billionaire stayed silent his gaze hard and thoughtful as he looked down at the baby in his arms. The wide blue eyes stared back, before the little guy pulled out his thumb and let out a gurgle, his mouth turning up in a small smile. Clark stared at the father and son, seeing the warm smile the father returned.

"If I had a choice, I wouldn't be putting him out there at all; I don't want my son to be in the middle of a scandal war. But…It'd be better if everyone heard it from me personally and…" he turned his eyes back to Clark. "I can't…" the father paused, the word feeling wrong on his tongue before he corrected himself, "I _don'_t trust anyone else."

Clark stared wide eyed at the other man, shock clearly written on his face. After he had debuted as Superman, he knew that Bruce as Batman never fully trusted him. He thought that the other man only saw him as a last resort ally or back up muscle. Yet to find out that the man trusted him enough to put the life of his child in his hands, Clark wondered how to answer to that.

"Also…" At this Clark felt his attention snap back to Bruce, his thoughts stopping, "I wanted to know, if…" Clark waited, still speechless from the earlier revelation as he waited for the other man to continue.

"I wanted to know if…" Clark leaned back, his eyes widening even further when he noticed the light blush dusting the other mans cheeks. "…if you could be Richard's….Dick's godfather."

Clark will deny for the rest of his life that he had actually stumbled back at the request. So instead he chose to remember the small giggle that escaped from the baby in his friends' arms as if knowing how funny the situation really was.

...Well, he was definitely not in Kansas anymore.

**TBC…**


	3. Adjustments and Revelations pt 1

**NOTE:** Thank you for all for the kind words, though unfortunately I have to announce that updates will be sporadic since I have recently started a new job. So my time at home is spent looking over my notes and my concentration is spent on my training.

On a lighter note I will be bringing in the Justice league and the Young Justice soon enough.

* * *

Bruce watched knowingly as the story was published and the existence of his son was known. It was as he predicted, in a few hours after the revelation of an heir the rumors and stories quickly spread through the nation like wildfire. Soon news articles were quickly published, questions arose, and some even doubted the story was real at all. The paparazzi had quickly become a feeding frenzy, all hungry for more. The moment Clark had left with the article about to be published (after having it painstakingly scrutinized by the billionaire for every mistake and information) Bruce wasted no time in getting things done. He called in Lucius, knowing the older man would want to know everything in person instead of reading it in the papers the next day.

Lucius took the news calmly, encouraging him to take a few days to a week to get everything settled, but not to hide out for too long. The more he hid himself the more the public would get desperate for answers; the trusted CEO wisely advised him to give the public glimpses of his son just enough to satisfy them and then promised him that he would call the best lawyers and security for protection, before congratulating him and leaving.

Bruce knew the man was right. It didn't mean he had to like it though, the article he had Clark published had been short. It announced Dick's existence and his acceptance, but he knew he had left an opening by not mentioning the mother; it was probably something she did not want, if the swift leave was any indication. It didn't matter anymore; she was gone, probably out of country if she was smart, nothing that would trace her back to him or Dick.

But telling the public had been the easy part. Even the fate of Gotham without Batman had been reluctantly but easily solved with a small agreement with Clark that he would come by to patrol.

In the end Bruce was now left with a baby who saw him as nothing but a stranger.

Having a five month old in the manor was a far cry from easy, it wasn't world-ending-hard per say but it was different. Of course someone who had fought crazies like The Joker or stayed up days at a time while running a company in the morning, taking care of a baby should have been...bearable.

It wasn't.

The first few days, he had no sleep, as Batman it was no problem, he was used to staying up for days at a time. Unfortunately, he was not used to the noise, at least with stake outs and research he had the comfort of silence giving him the chance to think and rest.

Dick however, would _**not **_stop crying.

The loud wails were both heartbreaking and nightmarish, Alfred had been there through most of it, giving advice and as much help as he could but in the end they both realized that Dick just missed his mother. The little boy knew something was different; he missed his mothers' warmth and familiarity, something Bruce could not give.

It was while Dick had finally fallen into an exhaustion induced slumber that Bruce all but wondered if he was doing the right thing. He knew he loved Dick, from the moment he had seen him, _he knew_, and he would never give his son up, but this was different.

This was a new life. This little person in his hands would be depending on him for the first eighteen years of his life, he would be the biggest influence in his life, he would be the one to teach him, to watch him grow, to guide him through everything, and one small mistake could end up scarring him. It was one responsibility he knew his parents did not have the chance to teach him and it was one of the moments it hit him how much he really missed them.

"Master Bruce?" He looked up to see Alfred by the door a small smile on his gentle face, his gaze turning to the now sleeping form on his charges' arms "how is the young master?"

Bruce sighed sadly, wishing he knew what else to give Dick but his time and love. It was painful to watch the infant cry and yet have no idea what to do when the baby was awake.

"I...I don't know what I'm doing anymore Alfred." He found himself admitting, something he could never admit to anyone else but his kindly friend. He stroked the child's cheek tenderly, as the butler watched on entering the bedroom before laying a hand on the younger's mans shoulder.

"It's quite a responsibility isn't it?" Bruce nodded at the words as he turned to the man who had raised him, looking into those eyes Bruce then realized how alike their situation was. Alfred had also been given the responsibility of looking after him after his parents had passed. Taking a child that was not even his own and raising him with no idea where to start from.

"How did you do it old friend?" He asked as the older man smiled.

"One day at a time master Bruce, with a lot of patience." With those words, the baby in his arms stirred, a soft cry making Bruce wince as he tried to gently rock the baby back to sleep. His hopes were crashed when Dick continued to frown and another cry escaped him. The billionaire sighed in defeat before looking back at his butler, an amused twinkle sparkled in the old mans eyes at the desperate father.

"Shall I prepare coffee sir?" Bruce nodded knowing it would probably be a long night. Alfred nodded before raising a brow, "and a bottle for Master Dick, preferably mixed with some tranquilizers?"

Bruce chuckled, watching as the older man left, shaking his head at his butlers' sense of humor.

He turned his gaze back at the fussing baby, watching as tears had already formed in the corner of his eyes.

"Hush now, Dickie, please?" It must have been a funny sight, seeing the almighty Batman begging a baby, right now though, he didn't care. He'd do anything to make the baby go back to sleep. When his pleas didn't work he held his son closer, carefully laying a light kiss on the fussy boys' forehead, trying to comfort him.

Gently he laid a finger on the side of the baby's lips and felt a tingling feeling of warmth and love when Dick turned his head slightly and opened his mouth to suckle on the tip of his finger.

Bruce wondered if all fathers felt like this, this feeling of both excessive pride and tender humility, he wondered what he did to deserve something so precious. He watched as the babe continued to drool on his finger and couldn't help but tease him by pulling out his finger from the suckling babe. Dick pouted, turning his head side to side to look for the makeshift pacifier, and Bruce couldn't help but softly kiss his baby boy on the lips, pulling away before the baby could use his lips as a substitute bottle.

Not wanting to tease any further, he gave back his finger and the baby sighed in contentment as he went back to sucking on his father's finger with vigor. Bruce couldn't help but laugh, nuzzling his baby's feather soft hair as he brought his face only inches from his son's face.

The doubts that had plagued Bruce's mind began to settle a little as he watched his son. The long lashes were lifted when large blue eyes suddenly opened up and Bruce could only smile down at the baby as he stared at those wonderful pools of palatinate blue with flecks of silver in them. Now he could kind of understand some of the compliments that women tended to give him about his eyes, because his sons eyes were just so perfect, more so because of the innocence shining behind them.

"Hi, Dickie." He whispered his voice softer than he ever thought it could get, "I'm your daddy." He watched amazed, as a tiny chubby hand lifted out from the blanket the baby was wrapped in and softly laid itself on his cheek. Bruce couldn't help but feel his breath hitch in his throat as he gingerly kissed the tiny hand.

"Yeah…" he smiled, continuing to stare into his baby's eyes, "that's right, I'm right here. I'll always be here."

**TBC…**


	4. Adjustments and Revelations pt 2

**Note:** Hello everyone. Things will start to pick up in the next chapter when I will bring in the Justice League; this is just some quiet times which I hope isn't too useless. I feel as if this chapter was a bit rushed and not up to par with the others because of the state of my melted brains from work. Hopefully though, many will still enjoy it.

* * *

It was a well-known fact around the superhero community that nothing could surprise the Batman; he lived in Gotham, which should speak for itself. Yet, in the past two weeks, that rule was repeatedly broken with the arrival of Dick.

With him around, Bruce had started to learn that maybe surprises in Gotham didn't always mean death or danger. That they could be a good thing again, and it was all thanks to the tiny boy who now held his heart and world.

In the two weeks since, Dick had slowly began to adapt, there were still moments that he missed his mother which Bruce knew he could never truly replace, but at least to Dick he was no longer a stranger. He was adjusting well. They both were. He admit that at times, things seem to go from bad to worse, the training he had gone through as Batman never did teach him how to bathe such a tiny vulnerable thing nor did he think that learning how to break a man a hundred ways would help with changing a diaper. At the end of the day though when Dick lay asleep in his arms, safe, warm and comfortable, he couldn't help but cherish all the times he had with his baby.

Along with learning how to care for a baby, Bruce had gradually become exposed to Dick's bubbly personality and little quirks and with that his fears and insecurities.

He had found out early on that Dick hated to be alone. Anytime he noticed that no one was around him, he was quick to cry, only stopping when either his father or Alfred picked him up and held him. It dawned on Bruce that maybe Dick felt that he would be abandoned again. He remembered reading in one of the baby books that children at that age would begin to slowly realize that they could be separated from their parents, giving way to feelings of fear and loneliness. With this revelation it ended with Bruce never far away from his baby boy. Anywhere he went Dick was always positioned nearby, usually on a baby jumper, on a bumbo seat, or on a blanket placed on the floor.

Another thing Bruce noticed was that when Dick wasn't crying, he was smiling and laughing. The infant was the definition of a smiling, bouncing baby. He smiled at everyone and everything, and for a baby who could barely sit up by himself he loved to move around and try to explore. Amazingly Dick had already learned how to roll from his back to his belly and when he was on his blanket he would repeat the action until he rolled off of the blanket he was on top of.

Little surprises and things like that never ceased to amaze Bruce and it somehow embarrassed him how excited every little thing Dick did, though pride usually overpowered those feelings. He was a proud father and Dick, as Bruce was starting to learn, was a clever little thing.

Currently he was watching as Dick lay on his new crib, the baby dressed in a black pajama onesie with a familiar bat logo on the chest; he shook his head at the choice of clothing knowing his butler must have picked the set on purpose.

The baby looked up at him and laughed before catching his feet, he stared at them in amazement before putting a foot on his mouth and chewing his toes.

Bruce chuckled at the action and wondered how many times he was going to keep smiling; he just couldn't get enough of this boy. Every smile, every giggle, every look that his son gave him seem to melt through his ice cold exterior and burrow itself deep in his chest.

"Does that taste good?" He asked playfully as he lightly tapped his baby's nose. The baby answered by giggling around the foot in his mouth.

After the article had been published and Dick became known he had finally gone out to buy his son everything he needed. Sure he had bought diapers and bottles before but he had been careful not too buy anything too big that would have raised questions. Now though, after having Dick with him for two weeks, he had bought a crib and set it up in his bedroom knowing the baby would not sleep without anyone present to watch him. He had also bought a car seat, toys and clothes that soon filled a room.

Alfred had reprimanded him telling him that babies grew at an alarming rate and Dick would probably never wear everything he had bought. Bruce had looked on embarrassed and he remembered how the old man had looked when Bruce had held up a tiny tuxedo that would have look adorable on Dick. Of course Alfred had shaken his head before sighing and telling him that he would need more than one suit. He guessed he wasn't the only one spoiling the little boy.

A soft knock on the door and a reminder that lunch would be ready brought Bruce out of his musings. Carefully he pulled the foot from Dick's mouth and held his hands out at the baby. In return Dick squealed kicking his tiny legs as his little hands reached up in a gabbing motion. Bruce slowly lifted him up and settled him in the crook of his arm as he laid his baby's head on his shoulder, the weight feeling nothing more than carrying a doll.

It was times when he held his son that Bruce felt like a giant; of course he was tall even to most people, standing at over six feet, but with Dick he felt even bigger. His son was so tiny, his head fitting in one of his hands easily. It left a feeling of fierce protectiveness in his chest that always grabbed a hold of him anytime the boy was near and left him wanting to gather the boy in his arms and keep him there.

He continued down the long stairway and into the kitchen where he was met with the scene of Alfred setting up the table and a certain reporter already seated down, looking almost as comfortably as being in his own home.

"Ah, Master Bruce, did I mention that I invited Master Clark for lunch?" Bruce looked over at the older man. Alfred would never forget something like that.

"No, you didn't." He answered quietly, eyeing the other two men in the kitchen.

"Well, it must have slipped my mind; I am getting old, maybe even a bit senile." The butler didn't even turn away from his duty, continuing to set the table up, probably knowing that Bruce wouldn't say anything. Not that he could do anything about it now.

Well, it wasn't the first time. Clark had slowly taken up residence in the Wayne Manor. It was understandable when he was in costume, he was after all, watching over Gotham for him, but it was the fact that Clark had started stopping by anytime he wanted.

The man of steel would suddenly show up at the manor with a stuffed toy in one hand and a big smile on his face with the excuse that he wanted to see how his godchild or his 'nephew' was doing. At least today he wasn't holding a stuffed toy, one Superman doll was more than enough in Batman territory, and he didn't need his son growing up with an obsession to the man of steel.

He entered the kitchen and gritted his teeth when Dick turned to look at Clark and began to wiggle in his fathers hold, babbling and smiling at his uncle.

"Hi Dickie, how's my little buddy?" The man stood up a bright smile on his face as he headed straight for the baby. Ignoring the fathers' reluctance, he held his hands out and Dick wasted no time in leaning forward and jumping into them. Bruce watched and a small pang of jealously shot through his heart. He was Dick's father and yet Dick was always so excited and happy being with everyone else.

Alfred, who stood on the side raised a brow and cleared his throat as he got the attention of the two men.

"Lunch, sirs?" Clark nodded and smiled at the old man before turning his attention back to the baby in his arms. Bruce could feel his cheeks burn slightly at embarrassment, knowing that Alfred had probably seen him in his state. He berated himself mentally, quietly reminding himself who he was as he hardened his features and distanced himself.

On the side Alfred's mustache twitched in a repressed smile.

Bruce watched cautiously as Clark lifted the baby up above his head before slowly bringing him down in his arms making the baby kick out his legs in excitement.

Another quirk of Dicks' was his love for being in the air. It seemed as if the higher he was, the louder his laughter became, his laughter leaving him breathless and wanting more. After the initial giggles had settled Clark once again lifted him up and brought him down laughing along with him. He did it once more before settling him down and kissing the baby on the lips before sitting on the opposite seat from Bruce with the baby on his lap. Reluctantly Bruce turned to his food thanking Alfred at the set lunch before him.

"Alfred mentioned that you were going back to work tomorrow." Bruce grunted, not wanting to think about the fact. He _was _going back tomorrow and he didn't like it one bit, he knew was being paranoid but he just didn't want to leave Dick alone, as is, he didn't think he could concentrate on his paper work when his son was at home alone and vulnerable. Well of course Alfred would be with him but after just getting to know his son he just didn't want to miss anything with him.

He nodded in answer, sipping at his drink as he watched Clark lift Dick to stand on his lap. Dick looked up to him smiling and occasionally bouncing, though his legs would buckle a few times from being unused to the weight.

"And Batman?" Clark asked quietly, turning the baby to face him and lifting him once again, Dick laughed out before putting his hands on Clark's face; the man opened his mouth and lightly bit on the little fingers with his lips. The infant cooed at the new game before suddenly pulling off the spectacles off of the mans face. Clark let him, not that he really needed it to see as he watched the baby look at the glasses in curiosity.

Clark glanced at the other man from the corner of his eyes.

"The League are wondering where you are."

Bruce took a small bite of his lunch, his gaze elsewhere, "They should know."

"They don't believe it."

"You wrote it." The other man shot back and Clark wished the other man would grace him with a lot more; you would think that after naming him his son's godfather that Bruce would be a lot of bearable. Heck he'd seen the man smile more in the two weeks than he ever did in the preceding years they knew each other, but he really shouldn't have been surprised. Bruce was Batman after all and he supposed not being thrown out of the manor the moment he stepped in was a step up. Especially since the man let him hold the most important person in his life.

"Contrary to popular belief Bruce, not everyone always believes me. Besides I haven't said anything else about it, they ask but I tell them that it's not my story to tell." The other man stayed quiet, seemingly uncaring and Clark sighed, "Look, you have to understand that there are people that care about you. And right now they think that you may have been injured and needed to hide out. It would explain why they think you haven't been in patrol lately, Flash even asked me if I wrote that article because I owed you a favor. That you needed to pull a stunt to protect your secret identity."

The other man raised an eyebrow "They really believed that? It's not something I would do."

"It's not something Batman would do," Clark corrected, "Bruce on the other hand…"

"When's the next meeting?"

"In three days. Are you coming?" Bruce looked back to the baby who continued to play with the spectacles in his hands before Clark gently took back his glasses, stopping the infant from putting the item in his mouth.

Bruce sat, mulling the idea in his head before he turned to look at Alfred, who had been keeping an ear on the conversation while washing a few dishes.

He could leave Dick with Alfred and just leave the meeting early. It's not like he would be staying long, just enough to show them that he was not injured.

The butler let out a slight cough breaking the silence.

Bruce turned back to the other man.

"I'll be there."

**TBC.**


	5. The League pt 1

**NOTE:** Elyograg: Yes. I went down that route, I'm a bit embarrassed at being so obvious but it was my excuse as to why Alfred kept coughing at the last chapter. Hopefully, it doesn't become a habit of mine to do things so predictably, but I can't help it. I have practically no originality. But I write for my enjoyment and if others enjoy it too I am grateful. Please continue to read on, even with the lack of imagination. Everyone, thank you once again.

Also: Spot a mistake, please point it out, I look over my chapters but I do miss a lot of stuff.

* * *

The dark figure watched from behind the walls, his blue eyes hidden behind white lenses followed the pair of spandex clad heroes disappear behind a turn. Relieved that it was finally clear to go he glided through the corridors of the hallway with practiced ease, his broad figure surprisingly quiet even with the large cargo held tightly in his hand. Not even a whisper of shoes was heard before the dark knight quickly entered the password on the key pad and slipped through the door into to his room. Feeling a bit safer he let out a small breath of relief as the door closed behind him with a hiss.

The dim light brightened gradually, unused to its owner visiting before it quickly began to brighten. Bruce frowned, his eyes straying around the empty room. With only a bed and few necessities, for just-in-case emergencies, the standard league bedroom looked bare and cold, mentally he thought that it described his life before he had Dick. It still surprised him how much that had change in such a short time.

He looked down at the cargo in his hand before walking toward the standard bed and laying it on the firm mattress. Pulling off his cowl he carefully ran his hand on the shape of his carry on, anyone looking at the ball shaped pod with a slight indent for the handle would probably excuse it as a new weapon, but for those who knew the bat well knew he would never carry anything that big around. His weapons needed to be small, something easy to use and able to fit in one of his utility belts. He opened a small hatch on the side of the ball revealing a keypad. With ease he entered the code and watched as the black metallic-like ball unfold and inside the makeshift pod he was met with palatinate blues.

"Hi Dickie." The young father whispered at the baby nestled in the once ball shaped pod. Mentally he congratulated himself at the success of the makeshift car seat that he had upgraded. Of course being a man with the access to one of the best technology in the world it was only right that he would have a car seat made that would protect his most precious treasure. Made to withstand accidents, fire and bullets, it would do before he found new ways to update it. He had even added a small tinted window that let the baby see outside. The car-seat was the first thing he had asked Lucius to make and as always Lucius did not disappoint.

Dick looked up at his father giving a slight smile around the pacifier in his mouth. Bruce sighed once again, running a hand through his hair before bending down to look at his son. The infant wiggled in his seat raising his arms up ready to be taken out.

"Sorry chum but you may be in there for a while." He explained and watched as Dick whined seeming to understand that he wouldn't be out of his seat soon.

"I know you want out baby, but be a good boy ok?" He tried to comfort the infant, giving his hand as the child wrapped his hand around two of his fathers' fingers. How could such a tiny vulnerable thing be his, he wondered.

"I'm sorry Dickie." He apologized once more as the baby let go of his fingers. Bringing Dick to the Watchtower hadn't been part of the plan, but as Bruce had quickly learned; his plans never seem to be going well as of late. That night after Clark had left Alfred had slowly come down with a cold. Though Bruce had hoped the butler would be able to shake off the illness before the league meeting, it didn't happen.

Instead he had taken a few more days off of work since he couldn't trust anyone else to look over his boy while he was gone and Alfred incapacitated. He had thought of leaving Dick home but the butler had quickly chastened him, lecturing him that Dick should not be around someone who was sick especially at his age where his immune system would not be able to fight it as well. And right now they really didn't need a sick baby around the manor.

Bruce had wondered what to do with Dick; he certainly couldn't pull out of the meeting when he had already promised Clark he would show. He knew that if he called in sick now, with almost a month of not seeing everyone, it would compel some of them to look for him, and he could only handle one super powered Meta in his city at a time. He really didn't need the others snooping around his city, Clark was already doing a _marvelous_ job at that; if the talk Bruce had been hearing around the streets about Batman having a _'friend'_ helping him around was any indication. So it had come down to this: sneaking around the Watchtower in the shadows like he was still in Gotham.

His thoughts stopped short as he glanced at the time on the alarm clock situated near his bed reminding him that he only had some fifteen minutes before the meeting would start. He leaned down towards the baby kissing the boy on the forehead as he whispered "Be a good little soldier okay?" The baby answered by spitting out his pacifier and pouting at his father. That wasn't a good sign. Well he certainly got his stubbornness from him if Alfred had any say about it.

He had thought that if Dick had fallen asleep he could have at least left him in his room for a few minutes. Hoping that the child wouldn't wake up he could have just showed up at the meeting and left. Unfortunately, Dick hadn't fallen asleep and he would never leave Dick by himself alone awake knowing how much the child hated it. He could never do that to Dick. Which left him with no other choice; he had to take him to the actual meeting.

"You ready chum?" The baby continued to look at him before sticking his thumb in his mouth. Well, at least he wasn't crying.

* * *

He walked into the meeting room restricted only to the big seven and any invited guest and ignored the glances of Green Arrow and Black Canary. Their eyes widened at the sudden appearance of the absent bat before turning to the metallic ball shaped cargo in his hand.

The green clad man raised a brow at his girlfriend who shrugged back before turning to Batman. It shouldn't be surprising; Batman was known to take leaves of absence without notice, his city always taking precedent before anything else. It was kind of a guessing game as to when they would see him again, though he had never been absent this long.

"Batman." The blond woman greeted, trying to ignore the question itching on her tongue. The bat grunted back before heading toward his seat. Carefully he laid the car seat on the floor by his feet, wishing he could comfort his son inside.

A few minutes later they were joined by a pleasantly surprised Wonder Woman and a smiling big blue boy-scout.

"Batman!" The Amazonian approached giving a soft smile at seeing the man alive, "it's good to see you well. We were worried something may have happened." The bat nodded as if saying 'Well I'm here now and you can see I'm ok'.

Accepting the nod as an answer the princess took the seat next to him. Superman, happy to see that Bruce had kept his promise took a glance at the carrier by his friends feet narrowing his eyes as he peeked inside and sighing when he realized that the pod was layered with a thin sheet of lead, typical. Not that it mattered, he already had an idea what was inside.

The heroes began to take their seat around the table waiting for the rest of the others to appear so they could commence the meeting.

It wasn't long before a red Blur slipped into a seat next to Batman.

"Hey Bats, long time no see. By the way, Hal's coming in a while, that slowpoke." The speedster shot out in one breath, already fidgeting in his seat.

"Who you calling slowpoke, twinkle toes?" Green lantern entered the room before taking his rightful place, "besides, you didn't even give me a warning."

"Excuses." Flash waved off the comeback before turning to the man besides him.

"So Bats, what's in the ball?" The question the others were mentally asking was candidly brought up as said speedster went to toe the ball only to stop halfway when Batman actually growled at him.

"**Don't.** **Touch**. **It**." The atmosphere around the table quickly fell to zero as they watched the man they hadn't seen close to a month practically looking ready to attack one of their own.

Something was different about him.

"Ok, geez calm down, no touchy Bats new toy, got it." Wanting to break the sudden tenseness and sensing the dark knights patience wearing thin, Superman stood up to signal to the others that the meeting would start. Checking to make sure those who were invited were there, his eyes landed on an empty chair.

"Where's J'onn?"

"He's at the monitor room," Flash quickly piped in, glancing warily at the darkening aura around the man beside him, "he…uh…said he'll come by later and to start the meeting without him."

"Ok, well it's nice to see all of you again." Superman started, his smile wavering at the narrowing glare behind a dark cowl silently demanding him to hurry up. "Firstly I'd like us to start on the new recruits we've been having since the league had been formed…"

For a man who had trained himself to wait for hours at a time under any weather and in any situation, Batman could not focus on the matter at hand, his eyes kept glancing down to check at the pod at his feet hoping that Dick would stay quiet until he found a good enough excuse to leave.

As usual his prayers went unanswered as a loud whimper was heard above the arguing voices of the league. And Batman thought that only his voice could stop an argument between the heroes. Seems like his son was turning out to be like him more than he realized.

"Uh, did anyone else hear that?" Flash began to look around before turning to the dark knight and eyeing the round pod by the Bat's feet.

"No." Batman snapped, turning to Superman and giving him a curt nod to finish things up. Superman opened his mouth about to continue the conversations when another louder whimper was heard. Flash abruptly stood up, backing away from the pod.

"Ok, Bats, what the hell is in that thing?" The other leaguers soon stood to attention, curiosity and suspicion behind every cowl and mask. Batman glared at the speedsters' choice of words before bending down at the car seat. He supposed it was no use hiding it now. At least the people around him were people who already knew his identity and he could trust with his life.

Not that they would ever know that.

Once again Batman found himself tapping on the keypad and hoping his trust would not put his son in danger. The others waited watching in amazement as the pod neatly folded back and revealed a tiny baby cuddled inside. The baby stared back with a teary pout, the endless blues turned to the new faces before titling his round head cutely and letting out a fit of giggles at the new found attention.

"Is that what I think it is?" Green Arrow asked aloud, watching the baby lift his hands toward _the_ Batman. Seriously out of all the heroes there the kid picked the most dangerous one.

"He's not an 'it' Queen." The father bellowed, unable to hear others calling his son out like a thing instead of a person, but the others excluding Superman looked on with shocked faces, ignoring the irate bat.

"If you're seeing a baby, then we both need to get our eyes checked." Hal answered the archer, taking in the picture of the adorable infant clad in a red, green and yellow footie pajama, with a picture of a tiny robin on his chest.

"Bruce…" Diana began, turning to the man as he carefully unbuckled the still giggling baby and pulling the child on his lap, "Is he…"

"He's mine." He grunted, sounding like a little boy unwilling to share a toy, before quietly adding with a barely seen smile, "He's my son."

**TBC…**


	6. The League Pt 2

**NOTE:** Sorry for the late update, I've been experiencing some computer troubles and had to rewrite this whole chapter, so I'm sorry to say that it may lack my usual attention to detail. I feel it a bit rushed, but I was just frustrated and just typed it out in one go. Hopefully if I have time I'll be able to re-write this thing for the better.

**Sairey13:** Wonderful guess, I had planned Martian Manhunter getting to meet Dick from the beginning but I'm feeling very predictable now. Well anyways please continue to enjoy.

All of you are wonderful.

* * *

The silence in the room was broken with a clatter as Green Arrow fell back to his chair, eyes wide behind his mask.

"Your son?" He spoke with a sense of bewilderment that woke the others up from their internal brain freeze.

The baby unaware of the commotion surrounding his existence began to take in his new surroundings staring wide eyed at the colorful clad heroes before him, soon the tike began to bounce in his fathers hold, loving the attention on him. He began to babble out coos in random, putting together unintelligible syllables to make his own words all the while tittering at the funny sounds coming from his mouth.

Flash was the first to shake off the shock before finally grasping the situation.

"Wait, time out," he turned his eyes to the bat trying to ignore the baby in the other mans arms, "Firstly since when did you have a son?"

Unused to being the one interrogated Batman gritted his teeth in irritation.

"About a month ago." He bit out, knowing the thousands of other questions soon to come his way.

"A month?!" The speedster exclaimed, "jeez Bats, you've been hiding a kid from us for a whole month? And you." The speedster turned to the blue and red boy-scout at the other end of the table ignoring the, I'm-just-an-innocent-bystander-look, "You've known all along, why didn't you say anything?"

"If you've forgotten Allen," Batman reacted, glaring at the ones surrounding him "it was published in the newspapers."

"Mans got a point." Green Lantern snorted out before seating himself back down, his eyes still not quite sure if the baby in the arms of the Batman was real.

"Well…how were we supposed to know it was legit?" Flash continued. It wasn't that he was angry at Bruce; he could understand the man wanted privacy and all and knowing how Batman was with these things, it was miracle that he actually came with the baby here. It's just, he liked to think that the people in the room including J'onn were the closest things to friends that Batman had. Heck, he trusted them enough to know his secret ID and he knew theirs (which wasn't much really since he knew before they ever told him) but it should have been obvious that they would be the first to know.

"It was by Clark, which should have given you all a clue." Batman deadpanned, with Clark shrugging in an I-told-you-so manner.

"But why did we have to find out like everyone else Bruce? Why did you not call us first, so we need not worry?" Wonder Woman cut in, her eyes shining with disappointment and hurt. Batman turned his face away; he told himself that he was Batman, why should he explain himself to them? Still, it didn't stop the twinge of guilt that poked at his gut. He may be the man thought to be void of emotions, but that was only because he was a pro at hiding them.

"Okay, maybe we should calm down here." Superman held his hands up at the group, trying to diffuse the situation at seeing the darkening shadow that had passed through his friends face. "I know it's come to a great shock for everyone-"

"No kidding." Green Arrow snorted, finally able to speak another few words "When I thought about us having kids, Bats was the last person on the list."

"But," Superman continued, ignoring the interruption, "I think it's only fair that we give Batman a chance to explain."

"What is there to explain Clark?" Batman snapped, unwilling to spend another second with those accusing eyes, especially not with Dick around, "Obviously they've made up their minds about this." Pulling the baby up in his arms and turning him around so his chin settled on a broad shoulder he stood ready to leave. Sure he had been expecting anger, he'd known that they had always held his friendship in closer regards then he did with theirs, and something this big had been kept from them. But they should have understood that secrets would always surround him and that he may not or never be or willing to share them all.

"Bruce…" Diana pleaded, stopping the man in his rush to leave, "don't, please." She knew that with this as their parting that they probably wouldn't be seeing him anytime soon, "you can't fault us at being surprised and a bit angry since you have told us nothing. We didn't know what had happened and we are all glad you are here, so please stay." Batman hesitantly sat back down, his eyes took in the circle surrounding him.

_Would it be so bad?_ He thought_. To let these people he trusted his life with on so many occasions to be part of it_?

His eyes fell on the man of steel who gave a slight smile of encouragement as he looked down to the light weight shifting in his hands.

_Would it be so bad to have Dick grow up with a larger set of family?_

"His mother left him to me…"He started his voice quiet yet clear to those around him as he tried to explain with as little detail as possible but enough to satisfy them.

The five heroes listened, amazed that they were finally hearing Batman say something longer than five words to them at a time. Their gazes switched between Batman and the baby as the infant was turned around from his fathers shoulder and instead sat on his dad's lap continuing to babble along with his father, almost as he was telling the story himself.

Dinah kept her eyes at the baby boy while keeping an ear out of the story, she watched as the baby put his dimpled fingers in his mouth before catching her eyes and giggling her way. The picture of the pink cheeked baby in the arms of the Batman was incredibly…

"...adorable." Green Arrow turned to his girlfriend.

"Huh?" The archer questioned seeing the soft glint in her eyes as she watched the baby. Dinah shook her head waving off his concern before she turned back to Batman's explanation.

_Adorable huh?_ The archer leaned back in his chair as he took in the scene of the baby and the Bat, watching as the infant stopped his babbling before suddenly turning back to his daddy's face. Standing once more on wobbly legs he looked up before trying to climb up to reach for the pointed ears of the Batman cowl, whining as Bruce tried his best to pull Dick's hands out of reach and away from the potential danger. The ears on his cowl weren't just for design, they were weapons. The baby unsatisfied with the fact that his father was denying him a potential toy, pouted.

_Adorable indeed._

"He **is** my son." Bruce finished, giving each leaguer a look, daring anyone to doubt him. No one did.

"What's his name?" Diana asked, after Batman had finished with his explanation, taking in the silence as each leaguer was lost in their own thoughts, their minds still trying to take the information they had been given. It was hard to believe, even with the evidence in sight and a witness to testify, it just didn't make any sense. How could the well-prepared plan obsessed Bat make a mistake and not even know it until months later.

"Richard." The Bat answered shortly, looking down at the baby, "Dick for short."

"Can I…hold him?" Diana asked.

The others watched as Wonder Woman stood and walked forward, going down on her knees to see eye to eye with the adorable thing. She held out her hands and the boy readily leaned forward and grabbed on to the outstretched palms. Batman, kept his hands on the boy before finally letting him go when he knew Diana had a safe grip on his son. She gazed down lovingly at the baby, taking in those familiar blue eyes that she had only seen a few times when she was able to catch the Bat unguarded.

"Oh Bruce…He's beautiful."

On the sidelines Flash observed the scene, his mind still lost in thought. He watched as the infant curiously stared at the new face before catching a fistful of her long tresses and staring at the silky strands before putting it in his mouth. The Amazonian chuckled at the baby's antics before carefully pulling out the strands as she nuzzled the pink cheeks.

From corner of his eyes he watched as Dinah also stood, walking towards Wonder Woman and Dick and smiling at the tike.

"You're so cute!" She barely held back the squeal as Ollie let out a breath and sunk in his chair.

"Great, a little chick magnet." He grumbled earning a glare from said 'chick magnets' father, "Not that there's anything wrong with that." He quickly added before standing and heading toward the women followed by Green Lantern, both wanting to stay away from the easily angered Bat and curious about the new addition to the Bat-family and leaving Flash alone with the young father.

"So how old is the little squirt?" He asked, thinking of the little tike he had back home, putting a smile on his face.

"He'll turn six months in a few days."

"Six months? He seems a little small for six months." The bat frowned at the comment before turning to the speedster.

"He is?"

"Well, I'm no expert in babies but Wally my nephew, was a bit bigger when he was six months. But hey, each baby grows differently." He shrugged off, not wanting to make the man any more paranoid then he already was.

"Ah." The Bat nodded though hesitation and worry was etched on his face. It was weird, having to see this side of the Bat. Even behind the cowl he knew Bruce was keeping a close eye on his son, his whole posture even though stiff with anxiousness at others holding his baby was not as intimidating as before. He seemed almost relaxed and …happy. Batman looked happy. Good God, was the world ending?

* * *

"Look at that, they love him already." Clark whispered to the figure watching from the corner as he joined him, their gazes both on the baby now in Flash's arms as the others were circled around him, trying to make the baby laugh.

"Clark." The bat turned to the boy-scout.

"Yeah?" The silent glare that practically shouted 'Don't be an idiot' was his answer making him shake his head and laugh at the tough guy act and irritating the other man further.

"So how's Alfred?" He changed the subject as Batman grunted. Knowing Bruce, that would mean Alfred was still down for the count.

"I see, well, if you need a baby sitter at least you have a few of us to ask." He expected the man to throw the offer back at his face when laughter turned their attention to the small circle around the baby. They saw as Ollie was rubbing his beard and the others including Dick laughing.

"Good job Dickie-boy. Show that beard-face Robin hood wanna be who's boss." Flash encouraged as Arrow turned to his girlfriend who laughed along but quickly gave him a small peck.

"Maybe." The Bat answered stunning the Kryptonian into speechlessness. Before he had the chance to ask Batman if he meant that however, the silence between them was broken when Superman's comm. link beeped.

_"Superman?"_ The voice of Martian Manhunter entered through his link.

"J'onn, what is it?"

_"Sorry if I missed the meeting, but I believe you said that Batman would be here today."__  
_  
"Yes, he's here." Superman turned to the Bat watching as the other man thinned his lips into a line, already knowing that the call would most likely pull him away from Dick.

_"You told me that as soon as he came back you would send him to look through the Justice League computer systems to double check everything, since our last check up here."_

"J'onn I don't think that today is a good day."

_"I see. Well I know he usually does this once a week to protect our systems from any infiltrations and it's been a month. Considering also that there was a breach last week, I figured it was top priority."_ Superman wanted to hit himself; of course it was top priority especially since the hacker who was able to go through a few walls without being detected had been traced back to a LexCorp employee.

"Of course. I'll see what I can do J'onn."

_"Thank you, also Green Arrow, Black Canary and Wonder woman are needed elsewhere."_

"Alright." Superman turned to the heroes still circled around the baby, "Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Black Canary. J'onn needs you for a mission." The three called heroes nodded, giving a goodbye kiss to the infant before the blond couple headed out first. Wonder Woman however, headed toward the two heroes, nodding a good bye to Superman before turning her gaze toward Batman.

"Bruce. It was nice to see you again." With a small smile she turned leaving the two heroes to their situation.

"Batman." The man of steel began, knowing how hard it would be to pry the overprotective new father from his young.

"I won't leave Dick." Was the gruff answer he was given, his body stood rigid. Well, it wasn't like Clark didn't expect that.

"I'm sorry, but if it's you it can be done in twenty minutes, thirty at the most." The father grunted, he turned to his baby watching as Dick yawned before burying himself on the speedsters chest. It wasn't like Batman could deny that reason, besides he had always been the one to push all the others away when it came with tinkering with his computer systems and especially now when Clark had explained about the breach. If there was someone out there who could hack through the Watchtowers defenses even if it was a few walls, he needed to know how to push them back out. And what was safer to leave his son in than a Tower filled with superheroes?

"Twenty minutes." The Bat agreed before heading towards his sleepy son.

"Allen." He called out catching the attention of the two heroes, "You and Hal are to look after him." The Bat ordered, the words feeling like glass in his mouth.

Surprised the red speedster nodded, "No probs Bat."

"If he cries or wakes up, there is a compartment underneath his car-seat that holds his bottles, diapers and such."

"Got it." He answered, wanting to laugh at the domesticity of Batman acting like a father.

"And Allen." Batman continued making sure the other knew how serious this was. He was leaving Dick to them, something he never thought he would do so soon.

"If I come back and he's hurt in anyway," The two heroes flinched as the face of the Bat shadowed with darkness, "you'll be the one needing the diapers. That goes for you too Jordan." The threat came out in a heavy whisper, the air around the two baby-sitters turned cold as the hair on the back of their neck stood at the honest truth to the words.

"Uh…got it?" The speedster agreed hesitantly looking to Clark who only shrugged helplessly, jeez do the guy a favor and you get threatened and for being the strongest man in the world Superman was useless against the wrath of the Bat.

Batman pulled back ignoring the cold air that his threat had left in the atmosphere as he laid a large hand on the baby's face, watching as the sleepy eyes closed before he turned and walked away repeating the mantra that Dick would be safe. Superman nodded his good bye before falling in step with the other man.

"That was pleasant." Green lantern groaned. "And how did it suddenly come to this, stuck baby-sitting."

"Don't pay attention to the Green Candle." Flash whispered at the sleeping tot, shaking off the fear that had settled in his bones.

"So, what do you think?" Green Lantern asked suddenly, taking a seat as he watched Flash carefully deposit the sleeping child into his car seat.

"About what?" Barry asked buckling the infant in while making sure he didn't wake, he pulled back once the tot was settled as he brushed a stubborn bang from the baby's forehead, smiling softly at the tiny baby. It was surprising how this little thing could bring Batman to his knees.

Green Lantern leaned back on his chair, staring thoughtfully at the ceiling.

"The Batman having a kid, it's hard to take in."

"Well, he is human after all." Flash shrugged off, taking a seat next to the Green superhero.

"Batman? Human? Now that's a scary thought, especially for a guy able to take down every leaguer here."

Flash laughed at that, knowing the truth behind those words, "Well…every man has needs ya know." Hal made a face behind his mask, wanting to push away the notion of Batman making a baby.

"Come on, don't put that image in my head."

"Honestly…I think it'll be good for him." The speedster answered, thinking of the way the Bat had touched the infants' cheek as a goodbye. At that instant he had remembered that underneath the cowl and glares was a human father.

"You noticed it too huh?" Hal turned to the blond and the two friends smiled at each other.

"Yeah, he's different. As in a good kind different."

"Still, who would've thought Bat would have such an innocent looking kid? I thought that if he ever had a kid it'd be some frowning little devil with a superiority complex. This baby is the complete opposite of him." The speedster opened his mouth to retort when he was interrupted by his own comm. link beeping in his ear.

"Talk to me. Uh-huh, yeah. Okay. Got it." He stood up as Green Lantern copied the action.

"Whoa whoa whoa," The Lantern stopped him before he could tell him anything, "you're not gonna leave me here alone with the baby are ya?" He pointed to the softly snoring infant, "I wouldn't know what to do."

"Calm down tinker bell," The red hero rolled his eyes, mentally laughing at the slight panic the other was showing, "I'll only be gone for a sec, besides he's sleeping. He probably won't wake up for a while."

"Fine but I'm not changing any diapers."

"Oh, so the guy with the all powerful ring who can do anything can't change a dirty diaper." He teased earning a light punch from his friend.

"Just go before he wakes up."

"You won't even miss me." The speedster disappeared in a blur leaving the other man as he sat back down.

"One second my ah…er bum…" He finished turning to the baby in sight, it wasn't like he knew the baby would understand and copy since he was unable to form proper words yet, but it was probably not a good idea to swear in front of Batman's baby while he was in the same building, or better yet in a floating tower in space with no where to hide.

He continued to stare at the kid, studying the soft rounded features of the tiny tot. It was weird, he could kinda see Bruce's face on the kid. Definitely had his eyes, and if he looked carefully, he had Bruce's eyebrows too, _heh, cute_. It was hard to think that this kid could have easily been Bruce when he was a baby.

He was being honest when he had agreed with Barry about the baby being good for Bruce though, the man had gone through so much and lost more than Hal thought he could mentally handle. Having family again, especially with something fresh like a baby would bring back the humanity that all the other leaguers had always worried the Batman would someday lose. Even if he wasn't the closest to Batman from all of them, he trusted the man and cared enough about him to see him happy.

"Kid, you're one heck of a superhero yourself." The baby in question seemed to have heard him in his dream-land as his lips pulled up in a sleep induced smile before fading.

After a few more minutes with no sign of his partner, Hal wished he could throttle the lying speedster.

_"Green Lantern." _The sudden beep and voice that followed startled the hero as he yelped and turned to the baby hoping he didn't wake, seeing that the baby still lost in his dreams he pressed a finger to his comm. to answer.

"Green Lantern here."

_"You are needed for a mission, report to the main hall."_ Hawkman ordered, his voice taking no for an answer.

"I'm uh, kinda busy right now." He whispered hoping that the mission could wait for a while, besides the threat that Batman had given to him as still fresh in his mind.

_"Well get un-busy. We need your help ASAP."_ The sharp voice of Hawkman snapped, cutting off the link before he could argue his case.

"Great." He grumbled to himself before pressing his link to a certain promise-breaker. "Flash." He called out before he was greeted back by a simple 'Yo.'

"Get your red ah-"_Baby in the room_, he reminded himself "-behind here, I'm needed."

"Shoot," The speedster cursed "wait a few seconds I'm on my way."

"You do realize it's been more than a second right?" He asked impatiently, for a person known to be the fastest man alive he sure was slow to finish things up.

"Alright I'm coming." The voice answered back, putting Lantern at ease for a while as he ended the conversation. It didn't last long before his comm. came alive and a booming voice shouted for him.

_"Green Lantern, you are needed NOW!"_ Hawkman nearly broke through his eardrums, making him hiss at the static.

"Look I can't just leave Ba-uh, I can't just leave." He cut himself off midway realizing that Batman probably didn't want anyone else to know about his kid.

"Why not?" Hawkman argued irritation clear in his voice and he tried to think of a good enough reason to refuse, but it wasn't like he could _say_ the reason so with a defeated sigh he gave in.

"Nothing. I'm coming, don't get your feathers in a bunch."

_"Wh-"_He shut his comm. link, cutting off the angry remark before turning to look at the baby as he bit his lips in uncertainty. Well Flash said he was coming and the baby was sleeping so it wasn't like he would be alone for long. Besides he was in a league meeting room, so the only ones who could get in was a high ranked league member, ones that Batman trusted. With a final glance at the sleeping baby he turned to leave, hoping to all that was good that Flash would get there soon.

"Flash you better get your butt in gear." He whispered as he walked out of the room and made sure it was locked outside.

* * *

It was quiet again, the baby in the car-seat whined at the silence. The talking and laughing earlier was gone. Opening his eyes slowly all he saw was a high ceiling and bright lights, lifting his head a bit he peered out and tried to see if anyone was nearby. He was alone. A feeling of utter dread filled his chest before he opened his mouth and let out a desperate wail.

* * *

J'onn had been glad to see Batman, it had been lonely without him at their meetings. He was sure Superman had known what Batman had been so preoccupied with during his absence but he had kept his questions to himself. He had been curious as well, but thought it best to leave the matter alone. If Batman was ready to explain to him why he felt he needed to hide he would honor his wishes until then. When he had arrived though, the Bat had simple nodded to him before turning to the monitors of the computers working furiously on the systems, more than he'd ever seen him, it was…odd.

At present he floated along the corridors toward the meeting room remembering how Superman had mentioned that Flash was there along with Green Lantern. The other alien had smiled at him and told him to go to them and though he argued to stay with the Bat to assist the other man had insisted and even Batman nodded in agreement.

Curious, he had chosen to go and see. It was when he was nearing the room that he heard it. It was faint but as he got closer he realized that the odd noise was actually pretty loud. Rushing in the meeting room his eyes settled on a strange cargo by one of the chairs of the league. Nestled inside the contraption was a tiny human child.

Cautiously the Martian floated down to walk on the ground as he headed toward the crying baby.

"I wonder who you belong to." He questioned to himself, before the baby finally feeling another's presence quieted his cries long enough to open his eyes and find the looming figure above him. The lonely feeling slowly lifted as he longed for the stranger to give him comfort, just like the giant man with the kind eyes who always held him.

J'onn continued to stare down at the child, seeing as he lifted his tiny arms out to him. At least his cries had somewhat stopped though he continued to hiccup. Looking around the empty meeting room J'onn thought about using his comm. link to ask if anyone had left a human child around. Although, it was probably not a good idea seeing as the baby seemed to have materialized in one of the most secured area in the tower. Obviously it must have belonged to one of the leaguers; it could be Flash, as he did say he had a nephew, though remembering it now the nephew he continually boasted about should be a few years older. What was the term humans used to describe this situation?

_Curiouser and curiouser_, if he remembered the words Flash used, though Green Arrow did warn him that Flash tended make up his own words.

"Mhmmm…" The infant in the seat whined seeing as the man gave no signal that he would carry him.

"Do not cry little one I will find your parents." He promised the child turning around to leave before the cries started once more stopping him in his tracks, he turned back to the wailing human seeing the wide tear filled eyes, quivering pout, and hands all grabbing for his attention.

"Do not worry I will come back, I must look for your parents first." He repeated though knowing earth children, they were nothing like Martian children wherein they could be comforted by sending a rush of parental warmth and love through their mental bond. Unfamiliar with human children, the Martian slowly continued to walk away before the desperate cries from earlier began once again sending the Martian in a decision to stay.

"I am sorry. I do not know what you need." He kneeled down relieved that the child had once again settled down with his presence.

"Shall I take you along to find your parents?" He asked hesitantly as the baby began opening and closing his hands at him. After a few more whines J'onn finally realized the gesture of wanting to be taken out. Using his mental powers he unbuckled the child and carefully made it so that the child floated up near him watching as the baby seemed to enjoy the sensation of being in the air as he stopped his crying suddenly and began to shriek out in happiness. Carefully he deposited the infant in his arms, unused to the feeling of carrying something so small and wiggly before he settled the tiny thing in a comfortable position.

"Alright, let's go." Walking out of the room he continued down the hall unaware of the commotion he would cause.

* * *

Flash rushed back to the room hoping that Green Lantern wouldn't turn Hulk on him. It was only supposed to be for a second but he had run into a few other leaguers he hadn't seen in a while and found it rude to just ignore them. Besides he was a friendly guy, and his wife did tell him that he let his mouth run almost as fast as his legs when he met up with friends.

He continued on to the meeting room entering the code and walking in, an apology waiting on his tongue. When he entered though he was met with an empty room.

"Uh…Hal?" He called out hoping the man was either hiding or had just gone somewhere with the child. The empty car-seat and silence was his answer. Pressing on his comm. link he routed it to the Green Lantern.

"Hal." He started as he heard the click of their comms connecting.

"Kinda busy right now Speedy Gonzales." The man panted out, the sounds of battle echoing behind him making Flash wonder where the heck the man had gone with a baby.

"Is Dick with you?"

"What? Aren't you supposed to be with him?" The voice answered back, before he heard a pained grunt and panicked chaos in the background.

"Me? Aren't you?" He argued back, his heart suddenly pounding loudly in his ears that he barely heard the others answer.

"I left him in the meeting room sleeping, he should be there."

"You left him alone?!" He exploded as he began to frantically look around the room, practically turning everything upside down.

"I only left him there for a few minutes; you said you would be there." Hal accused, sensing the other mans panic through the comm.

"I am here!" Flash shouted, as agitation moved him to frantically look around the room, "He isn't!"

"What?!" Hal shrieked out, before grunting when he caught a punch aimed at him, "You lost him?!"

"I lost him?!" The sudden image of Batman finding out about the situation came to mind as he stood in the empty and now messy room shouting animatedly into his link "You lost him! You better be joking Lantern!"

"Joking?!" Green Lantern combated, "I'm on another planet right now with Hawkman if you don't believe me. Are you sure he isn't there?"

"Yes, I'm sure, I'm right here staring at an empty room." _Oh God, Oh God, they were dead._ _No, they were better off dead when Batman finds out._

"Ok, wait, calm down." Lantern tried to think logically, no one could lose a child that easily, especially not in one of the safest place on the planet, "You don't think maybe he…ya know, walked out?" He tried to reason, his thoughts also on the looming welcome he would get when he came back. If anything, it would probably be a good idea if he had 'died' on his current mission.

"Oh right, a baby who can barely sit up, unbuckled himself, jumped out of his car-seat and just walked off." Flash squawked still wondering how he could have lost Batman's kid on the first day of having met him, this was unbelievable!

"Well, you never know, he is Bats kid." Flash opened his mouth to retort but in some weird way it was not impossible if it was Batman's kid.

"Well, it's a 95% chance that he didn't."

"I don't know," Lantern shouted back before dodging a stray beam that would have taken him out as his attention turned to the battle at hand, no he needed to focus on his mission before anyone got seriously hurt, "look I have to go, I can't focus on my fight, find him Allen, or we're both goners."

"No! You are- damn it!" He pulled the comm. out before throwing the device down, this was not happening he groaned, "What the hell am I gonna tell Batman?"

"Tell me what?" A cold voice growled out as the air in his lungs seemed to have been sucked out. Sharp needles pricked through his bones and coldness twisted his gut in fear. Barry turned around slowly, reminiscent of the horror movies that Iris always banned him from watching in front of Wally toward the entrance as he came face to face with one of the scariest thing that Hollywood had not yet perfected in monster movies.

The silhouette of a young father suited in a bat suit with the knowledge of how to kill a man a thousand times over in agony stood, blocking his only exit.

_**"Where is my son?"**_

**TBC…**


	7. The League pt 3

**NOTE:** I have heard the cries of Young Justice Fans about the show being stopped or cancelled recently. And though I have only watched a few episodes of the second season (seeing as I'm an adamant season one fan) I feel that it would be a great help to the fandom to offer our support to our fellow authors and readers who enjoy the second season. And besides we need more Superhero shows on TV. The forum is called Save Young Justice and the link below will direct you there. Thank you.

www. fanfiction myforums/ janzen222/ 1535855

* * *

For a man who was known to have a mouth as famous as his superhero name, and who could always squeeze in a word or two while fighting a villain, the open silence after the question left him speechless. Flash pulled back from the looming shadow, his mouth still trying to catch up with his brain. But what could he say to a man who he had just lost his baby, not when the man had probably written a whole book about his weakness and how to kill him.

So he stood there, mouth agape as the shadows in the corner of the room seemed to grow, as if the hero in front of him looked to be getting bigger and bigger. Or maybe he himself was just getting smaller, from the look of those narrowing lens though, he wouldn't mind if he was shrinking, actually he wished he could just shrink down to the ground and disappear. Or maybe he could vibrate his particles and just slip through the floor below. Heck, maybe he could vibrate long enough to go through all the floors until he was out in space, at least then he could give himself a quick and painless death.

He must have been contemplating his suicide too long when Batman stepped forward, bringing him closer within arms reach of the speedster and his death.

"I asked," Batman snarled out, like a tiger sneering at his prey before attacking, "Where. Is. My. **Son**?" If Flash wasn't so busy fearing for his own safety he could have heard the waver of fear in the Bat's voice or the way his clenched hands shook at the thought at Dick with someone else, a stranger who didn't realize that they had his son.

"Allen!" Batman bellowed and Flash felt himself jumped in surprise, he had never heard Batman scream as loudly as he did.

"Idon'tknow!" He shouted back, though the answer didn't seem to please the father. Flash watched as the man seemed ready to lunge at him before he whispered out, "You don't know?" It was frightening how his words came out in a calm whisper when just a second ago he was shouting at him; it was like the man had forgotten his control.

"Jordan." He barked out, though the question came out more as an order then anything else.

"He was called to a mission." He answered quickly, aware how the Bats temper seemed to get shorter and the way his teeth seemed to be clenching so painfully that his jaw had turned white.

"And you?" Flash, wanted to make up an excuse good enough to get him out or accuse that Lantern was the one who left Dick alone, but he didn't think it would matter anyway. Dick was still missing and he still didn't know where he was.

"I….I was called out for a mission too." He confessed ready to have Batman attack him but instead the other man only shook his head slowly, disgust shown through his mask.

"**I** gave you a mission: To look after my son." Batman whispered dangerously, surprising the speedster at the hurt that dripped in that statement, "Dick should have come second to none."

Flash suddenly wished that Batman would just kill him, it would have been better then the sharp claws of guilt and broken trust that squeezed his heart, finally making him realize the severity of what he had done. He knew how much Batman trusted them, it was not showed externally very much and even then it would be minimal at best but the fact that he had left Dick (the only one who meant more to him than anything) in his charge would be the biggest example of how far Batman had come from the emotionless shell that he was years ago. He had taken the trust Batman had given him and threw it all back in his face when he carelessly left Dick and stopped to chat with his friends instead of quickly returning to the baby like he had promised.

How would he have felt if it had been Wally? The image of the smiling three year old with the emerald greens and the wild mop of red hair and chubby freckled cheeks entered his mind. What the hell had he done?

"Bruce…" He started, his voice filling with regret, but his apology was cut short.

"Don't," The man walked passed him toward the overturned car seat as he began to look for clues around it, fisting the empty blankets on the seat. "Apologizing won't do anything now Allen, if you're really sorry, go look for him." Flash nodded at the command ready to go through the whole Tower a hundred times over if he needed to.

"Besides," The young father continued not even bothering to turn back toward him, his focus still on the car-seat, his voice still steady and unusually loud in the large room, "if you don't find him, you'll have your whole life to apologize," Flash nodded, accepting the punishment, and if he had to grovel at the Bats feet he would do it, but the next words would stay in his nightmares for years to come, "and Allen being the fastest man alive won't save you. I'll scour the world and I'll make sure that you'll never have time to even stop to catch your breath before I have my hands around your neck." Unconsciously Flash brought a hand around his neck his eyes widening at every word, watching as the man stood and turned back to him.

"But don't worry; I'll give you a head start." Flash nodded, trying to stop his body from trembling and activating his particles and making him lose control.

"And your head start…" The bat gave a bone-chilling grin as he positioned his body into a fighting stance, the Kevlar bulging out as the Batman tightened his muscles ready to attack, "is in three…two…" Flash had already forgotten how to breathe before the connection to his body and his brain finally caught each other with a loud alarm that rang through his head like a bullet. It shouted for him to move; he stumbled back clumsily from the Bat before the cowl covered eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "On-"

He was out even before Batman could finish the word, his vision blurring at the speed he was going, ignoring the squawks of the unfortunate heroes in the hall that didn't see him coming.

He needed to find Dick, and he needed to find him now, if he didn't he'd never see his sweet Iris again or watch Wally grow or- NO! How selfish was he? This wasn't about him! He had unintentionally broken the trust of one of his friends whom he had worked so hard to gain, Batman was right to do this and he wouldn't stop until he found Dick and had him safe in father's hands.

Back in the room, Batman stood, staring at the empty space where the speedster had been standing; slowly he picked up the empty car seat and walked out of the room.

* * *

Humans were such weird species, as J'onn had already realized. Not that there was anything wrong with them as he had known many humans that were also compassionate, brave and loving, but some of the things they've done were…strange to put it nicely. They were over-worked, over stressed and naïve young creatures that acted like children. They didn't pick up after themselves, seemed to forget their manners and were curt with other humans. And now, he learned that they probably leave their young alone in empty rooms to cry. Very strange indeed.

He looked down at the tiny human in his arms, as the baby tilted his head to look up to him before giggling. It left a tickle of warmth in his chest at how accepting and loving the child was, most human children he knew pulled back anytime he was in his form, and adults were even worse sometimes, yet the boy was snuggling close to him his familiar blue eyes twinkling in genuine joy.

"I suppose it would be ok to call Flash," he spoke to the child not knowing why but feeling comfortable anyway, "since he has had experience with children before, maybe I can ask for his assistance." He pressed on the comm. in his ear before he was greeted with static. That either meant that the meta had turned it off or the comm. had been broken, it was probably the latter. Maybe he could connect with him through their mind link.

The Martian focused in his mind, stopping a little ways as he was able to connect to the blond speedster.

"Flash." He called out and was met with feelings of distress and almost tangible panic, "Are you all right?" He questioned, worried that maybe Flash may have been in trouble, especially after knowing that the man was not answering his comm.

"_Hey J'onn, sorry I'm kinda busy right now." _The younger hero panted out, exhaustion clear in his voice.

"I apologize, but I just wanted to know if-"

"_Could you call someone else?"_ The voice strict but not rude asked, _"I'm in a life and death situation here."_

"I understand. Be careful." Flash gave a short answer of thanks before the two disconnected. He supposed he could continue on with the search without Flash, he watched as a few heroes headed toward them before passing them unnoticed. The reason being that the moment he had walked out of the league meeting room he had cloaked himself and the baby in invisibility, knowing that it would probably stir up trouble if he was walking around the building with a human baby in his arms.

The said baby whimpered and J'onn held the tot closer, putting his chin on the baby's soft head of hair.

"I must apologize to you too little one; it seems it will take a bit longer to find out where your parents are. If I am unable, I suppose I will go see Batman that is, if he is not too busy with his work." The baby babbled out a word as if understanding before rubbing his face on the Martians chest, for a second J'onn closed his eyes and imagined it was his own child, remembering her form back in his arms. It stirred up the feeling of protectiveness and immeasurable joy and hope mixed with the burden of sadness as he realized that this was not his child.

The baby in his arms cooed, laying a hand on over the Martians chest where his heart laid beating, almost like he was comforting the man who held him with such tender familiarity.

* * *

Batman stood watching the surveillance tapes at the private monitor room as Red Tornado accompanied him, his face as expressionless as ever. Unlike the others, Batman explained to the robot the situation freely, the robot nodded taking the explanation with the same reaction as he would about the weather.

The good thing about Red Tornado was that the android had a sense of justice and a good heart that cared for his friends but he did not try to pry into their lives. Batman knew the android would never say anything to anyone when he knew it was a secret and the red robot would safeguard it with his everything he had, it was what Batman admired about him. The android had understood and asked no questions and even gave a small comfort that nothing escaped his surveillance and they would find Dick soon.

"I have something else I want you to do for me." Batman explained to the android, explaining to him about his orders before sending him away. Now it was time he did his own search for his son.

"Computer, switch all surveillance to infrared vision."

* * *

Green Lantern was exhausted; the mission had taken a toll on him and his ring, his clothes were tattered, he was dehydrated, bruised and starving but that didn't pull down his spirits as the victims of the oppressed planet were thanking him and the rest of the team who had been deployed with him. The only thought that could bring him down was the fact that the moment he stepped back on the Watchtower, he would be greeted with his death. Not exactly something he was looking forward to.

It took another few minutes before they could get away from the beyond gracious group of survivors before Hawkman nodded at him along with the other four with them and they started on their ship.

"Everyone, good job." Hawkman commended as they entered the shipbut before Hal could enter Hawkman stopped him the green hero raised an eyebrow at the other.

"Problem?" He asked the other hero, before Hawkman shook his head.

"Not that I know, but Red Tornado contacted me." For a moment Hal been terrified that it was Batman, but the man didn't seem like the type to go to another person to threaten someone else. If anything he would do it personally, it was far more effective that way, so hopefully Flash had found Dick before Batman found out. Actually, he would mostly likely find out but that would hopefully it would take some time before then.

"And?"

"He told me that there was another mission waiting for you." Green Lantern frowned at this.

"Me? Couldn't they send someone else?" Hawkman shrugged as one of his wings followed the movement.

"He specifically needed a Lantern." Understandable, but still it was well known that after a mission, those too hurt or exhausted returned to the Watchtower to recuperate unless it was a world ending emergency. The rule had been made by Batman himself who explained that it useless to have exhausted people fighting in the field and causing more damage than good. So maybe it was just a small one?

"Fine," he relented, trying to push back his exhaustion, "what's the mission?

A small smile appeared on the taller hero's lips as he explained, leaving the green clad hero gaping.

"You've got to be kidding me."

* * *

Barry was dying, no he was literally dying, it had been hours since he had started running around the tower and still no sign of Dick. He had eaten his last granola bar ten minutes ago and with the way his metabolism was, he would soon pass out from starvation. Every hour since he had started looking had been hell and like Batman had warned; every time he even thought about slowing down to take a breath he would see a familiar shadow at the corner of his eyes. He didn't even know if it really was Batman or if it was all in his imagination, he didn't want to stop to find out.

His vision soon tilted as he stumbled into the room he had checked for the hundredth time that day.

"Flash!" A voice screamed out in alarm as Wonder woman walked toward the weakening man.

"Hey Di…" he answered softly, trying to push himself to stand and keep looking, he couldn't let Bruce and Dick down, the poor kid must almost be as hungry as he was and twice as scared.

"Barry, what are you doing? You look exhausted, when was the last time you ate?" She fired question after question putting her hands on the mans shoulder and held him up.

"Princess, it's all my fault!" He whined, hoping the woman wouldn't hate him when she found out what he had done to Batman.

"What is? Flash, you're exhausted, you're talking nonsense. Maybe I should take you to the medical bay." She tried to gently pull the man into the direction of the bay but he pulled back.

"I can't! I have to fine him first."

"Him?"

"Dick! I lost him and now I've been searching for him and I can't find him and Batman is going to kill me because I lost his baby." He ranted out, his eyes still searching every corner of the place he entered for the missing baby.

"Flash…" Wonder Woman started, confusion still etched on her face, "Dick is fine." That snapped the speedsters' attention, jerking his face to look at the heroine.

"What?!" He screamed unbelievingly, taking Wonder Woman by the shoulders to ground himself.

"Yes," she continued, shocked at the change of the once weakened man, seeming to have found adrenaline in her answer, "he's in the monitor room with Batman, I just came from there a few minutes ago." Letting go of Diana he ignored her calls to stop as he raced toward the monitor room hoping that she hadn't been joking with him.

He barged into the monitor room and wondered not for the first time if he was imagining things. Batman stood there with Dick asleep in his arms as he, Martian Manhunter and Superman stood by him, all three speaking with each other quietly.

"Dick?" He sighed as he fell to his knees, relief overtaking his entire body as adrenaline left him.

"Flash!" Superman raced toward the speedster, putting an arm over his shoulder as he easily pulled the man up.

"What's wrong?" The man of steel inquired, worry evident on his face.

"Dick…he's here?"

"Why wouldn't he be?" Superman asked, still in the dark about everything, he had just come in a few minutes ago from a mission and nothing seemed wrong, what was the speedsters spewing on about?

"When I left Dick with him and Jordan, they lost him." Batman explained his voice calm as he glared at the blond.

"Lost him?" Superman asked, not really believing it, how could you lose a baby who couldn't even crawl yet?

"Actually," Martian Manhunter spoke up, "they left him alone in the room which I walked in and took him since the boy was crying."

"You took him?!" The speedsters accused, earning a 'shhh' from the three men as the baby in Batman's arms frowned.

"Yes, unlike you, J'onn took him and looked after him." The Bat snarled as realization slowly started to dawn on the speedster.

"But…I didn't see Dick with him…actually I didn't J'onn all day either." He whispered to himself, wondering how he could have missed it.

"That was because I used my invisibility, as I figured that the baby would raise too many questions if I walked around with him. I did try to call you about it…" Flash groaned to himself remembering how he had deflected the call, when that call could have saved him the trouble all along.

"I see, well as long as Dick is safe I suppose." Superman smiled lightly.

"Yeah" Flash agreed, happy to see the kid safe too, "but when did you find him?"

"I returned him to Batman almost three hours ago." Martian Manhunter commented and Flash almost screamed out again before Batman glared at him.

"Three hours ago?" He whispered, ready to lay down and just die.

"Batman," Superman turned to the Bat his smile replaced with a scolding glare, "why didn't you call off the search when you found Dick?" It was unheard of for Batman to act so childishly.

"Oh. I must have forgotten." The man deadpanned with no ounce of regret whatsoever.

"You know how Barry's metabolism worked! You could have gotten him killed!" The man scolded silently his eyes glancing down at the baby to check if the volume was too loud.

"You're right I do know his metabolism," the man agreed, his face as unreadable as ever, "I also know how many hours he can go before he needs his backup bars and how long those last before I could send out Wonder Woman to find him before he collapsed completely." Superman opened his mouth to rebuke the other man but Flash stopped him.

"It's all right Supes, I'll be fine with a little food. I'm just glad that Dick is okay." He answered sincerely as he nodded for the super meta to take him to the cafeteria to refuel.

Before the two could step out though they were met with an exhausted, beaten and slime covered Green Lantern. A rotting odor followed the hero and all of the people in the room covered their mouth and nose at the atrocious smell.

"Urgh, what the…Hal, you stink!" Flash stated the obvious as Batman bypassed the other heroes to leave, seeing the smell bothering the slumbering infant.

"Who in the heck sent me to eight missions cleaning up crap?!" He hissed, knowing that he would probably smell like this even after several baths. Before the door closed behind him, Batman turned his head as he walked.

"I hope you boys learned something," he threw back, before scrunching his nose at the smell, "and Jordan, I've been cleaning up your crap for years, I thought it appropriate." Before the father disappeared at a corner.

**TBC…**

**Note: **J'onn did have a child who passed in the comics. Also, the next chapter will have more baby dick and daddy bats fluff, I promise. Well…we'll see.


	8. Reality Check pt 1

**Authors Note:** Thank you all once again for being so patient and kind with me. Read on, but beware, this chapter lacks much action seeing as I'm not a very action-y writer.

* * *

Bruce blearily opened his eyes and felt a twinge of a sleepy smile on his lips as he listened to the soft coos of his son playing in his crib. He laid there for a while listening to Dick babble on and felt calmness washing over his body, the feeling akin to a warm blanket wrapped around him on a cold day. It was unheard of for him to wake up so happy in the morning considering that he had never been a morning person. Preferring instead to just lie on his bed until Alfred threatened him with starvation if he didn't stir.

Now he couldn't help but wake up and look forward to the day he could spend with his precious son. He stood up slowly, letting the duvet fall from his naked shoulders as his feet touched the cool floor of his bedroom. He stood, stretching his body as his eyes zeroed in on the crib a few steps away. Clad in only his silk boxers he walked toward the mahogany crib watching as Dick sat up by himself (albeit a bit wobbly) as he played with the drool in his mouth, blowing little spit bubbles and giggling at the tingling feeling on his lips. He was dressed comfortably in a panda bear footie pajama with a fuzzy hood that pulled over his head. It was an adorable sight to see first thing in the morning and he chuckled softly catching the infants' attention. Dick looked up to his dad, giving a toothless grin, a bubble on his lips popping.

Bruce watched as Dick bounced in excitement, trying to grab for him and instead falling side-ward's in a heap as he was still unbalanced with his tiny body. Quickly Bruce bent down to pull his baby out of the crib and into his arms, but not before lifting him above his head and watching the baby kick out and squeal at being in the air. He slowly brought him down to his arms before he walked back to his bed, laying him on the silk sheets.

"How's my little early bird?" He whispered out, his voice still a little harsh in the morning as he laid himself by his baby. Dick answered with a smile grabbing at his face, fascinated by the rough stubble on his daddy's chin. Bruce took the tiny hands and held them nuzzling on the soft palms and earning a hiccuped laugh. He wondered if he'd ever get tired of this and found his answer as he looked into those bright blues eyes filled with love. Never, he would never get tired of this.

"Ooohhh." Dick cooed and Bruce bent down to give him a tiny kiss on his forehead before feeling playful and lightly biting on a fat rosy cheek with his lips.

"Nom nom nom." He teased nuzzling his son before switching to the other cheek, giving it the same treatment, with the child wiggling around in laughter Bruce couldn't hold back his own chuckles and his kept up at the game moving to the boys tiny nose and pretending to chew on it.

"Well, you two sure are lively this morning." An accented voice was spoken from the doorway. Bruce turned from his little game to see Alfred standing there with a raised eyebrow.

"Good morning Alfred." He greeted before looking down at Dick, his cheeks were now a darker hue of pink, both from laughter and the slight stubble from his dad's cheeks lightly scratching his baby soft skin.

"Good morning Master Bruce, I'm glad you're enjoying your morning. However, today is a work day and I'm sure you wouldn't want to be late." Bruce groaned out at the mention of work, he would think that since he was the boss he could call in and have a day to just play hooky. Unfortunately, his whole company was riding on his shoulders and guidance, even though Lucius could probably hold up the company for one day. However it had already been several weeks of his absence and the older man was already dealing a lot with everything going on. Besides no matter how understanding the CEO was, he was just as bad as Alfred at times when it came down to work and priorities. It just wasn't about his life here; thousands of people working for him depended on his decisions.

He gave in, as he always did with Alfred, as he stood up, gave another kiss on Dick's forehead and handing him to Alfred to take.

"Have you changed his nappies Master Bruce?" The butler asked as he took the child and gave a small smile at the baby, positioning him in his arms he sat comfortably, his tiny legs kicking out.

"Not yet Alfred, sorry." He apologized though they both knew he wasn't. Alfred lightly felt up the full diaper and shook his head.

"Why sir, though I love these little gifts in the morning, I daresay you're spoiling me." The butler muttered airily before heading toward the changing table next to the crib ignoring his charge as he headed toward the bathroom for a shower. The older gentleman laid the tiny child on the table shaking his head as the young Master immediately tried to flip on his stomach his grabby little hands trying to reach for anything close by.

"You're as blithesome as ever," He sighed at the child, turning the baby around and trying to hold him from turning again as he wrestled with the infant to get his jammies off, "quite reminds me of your father." He reminisced, a touch of sadness woven in the words as he recalled the smiling couple of his previous employers and friends. His thoughts straying to the memories buried deep in his thoughts of a tiny baby held so tenderly in his father's arms so many years ago.

Shaking his head, he turned back to the child who had somehow grabbed a bottle of baby powder and was ready to drool on it before Alfred quickly took the item from the baby's clumsy fingers.

"Now now Master Dick, we can't have you being a mess even before breakfast begins." He scolded lightly as he finished cleaning off the baby and slipped him in a navy blue Superman onesie with matching socks and beanie.

"Just a little harmless revenge on your father Master Dick, I'm sure he'll love this surprise as much as I enjoy his." He tapped the baby on the nose. Dick answered him with a giggle as he began to chew on his fingers.

They didn't wait for very long before Bruce walked out of the bathroom clean shaven and clad in a towel, the man took one look at his sons choice of clothing and Alfred felt a small victory as the man almost pouted.

Oh how he loved mornings like these.

"We'll be meeting you for breakfast downstairs Master Bruce." The butler walked away child in his arms pass Bruce before the baby peeked over his shoulder and blinked cutely at his father as if wondering if he was going to follow. Bruce gave a small wave and the tot answered back with a laugh.

* * *

He arrived in the kitchen sharply dressed in a pin striped Armani suit accented with a navy blue that complemented his eyes. It added a clean intimidating look to his already imposing height. Bruce sat down by his sons' highchair and looked forward to one of his favorite part of breakfast.

Feeding his son.

Ever since they had gotten the okay from the doctor to start Dick on solid foods, Bruce had been excited, not only because Dick could finally start gaining more weight but because this was one of Dick's firsts. He may not have been there when Dick was born or when Dick first opened his eyes, but he would be there for everything else. His first steps, his first words, he promised himself that he would never miss anything with Dick. He would never take anything for granted, not after everything that had happened. His son was everything to him now and he would savor every moment he had with him.

He turned to his baby, a bib wrapped securely on his neck as he stared at the food that Alfred was stirring in a Batman themed bowl and spoon. The rice cereal was one of Dick's favorite, Bruce didn't know if it was because it was the first thing he ate but he liked to think that Dick, young as he was, had started to understand his own likes and dislikes.

Alfred handed him the cooled mush and he picked up the bowl blowing the rice cereal for good measure as he turned to Dick. The baby started to bounce in his seat, already opening his mouth, and Bruce found himself comparing him to a baby bird waiting for his feeding.

"Some one's hungry." He teased as he scooped a bite on the tiny spoon. He lifted the spoon up to Dick and Bruce opened his mouth in tandem with his son, slipping the scoop in Dick's mouth as he chewed along with him.

Meanwhile Alfred stood by the island counter, enjoying the show of Bruce feeding the infant. If he didn't have such a tight control of his emotions, he would have been laughing at the sight of his charge doing as most parents do while feeding their children. It was certainly something he never thought he would see in his lifetime. To see the once dark and brooding young man dropping the walls he had built around himself to enjoy small moments like this. Alfred closed his eyes for a moment and felt a weight on his shoulder lift, imagining the smiling faces of Thomas and Martha Wayne and wishing that the couple could have met their grandson.

Opening his eyes the oldest friend of the Wayne family turned away from the sight with a lingering smile, leaving the father and son to their breakfast.

* * *

Bruce had always been a punctual person. It meant leaving the house at the same time everyday to beat traffic and start work as early as possible. Leaving Dick however, was not always easy as the child hated when he was away from him.

Bruce was the same, always finding every excuse to stay one more minute and have the child in his arms. Sometimes he wished he could take his baby with him but rationalized that that would probably not be for the best. At least not for a couple more years.

He kneeled down and placed Dick on one of his walkers even though the baby could barely reach the floor and stood up ready to leave (after his failed five times) only to have Dick whine and try to follow him, clumsily pushing his feet on the ground to move himself.

"Daddy has to go, okay baby?" He explained to the pouting baby as he kneeled back down to try to be eye to eye with his son, though even on his knees he still towered over him.

The pout deepened and big crystal tears began to pool at the end of his eyes.

"Don't cry Dickie." He tried to comfort, softly running his thumb on his baby's cheeks as the tears rolled down. "I'll be back."

"Master Bruce." Alfred interrupted, hating to intrude on such a sweet moment, but knowing that if he didn't Bruce would try and find an excuse to stay, not that he would blame the man. It was hard to say no to Dick, especially when he looked someone with those large blue eyes of his. Even Alfred was not immune to them.

Not for the first time, Bruce pouted before giving a final kiss and leaving reluctantly. Once the man was out of sight, Dick's whines and tears had turned into loud wails.

"Come now child." Alfred tried to soothe the baby, picking him up from his walker and heading toward the living-room where they had set up Dicks playpen.

"Your father will be back, maybe even earlier than you think." Not that it would be the first time.

* * *

The words on the document hadn't been registering in his thought process for a while now. He was sure he had signed a few things that he never would have if he read through them carefully, but right now Bruce didn't care. All he wanted was for the damn time to tick by as quickly as possible. He just wished that it was already four so he could go home to the manor and be with his son.

He was sure a few of his employees were already irritated when he would float away in his head. His mind going back to his baby, wondering what he was doing, if he was alright, if he had eaten or not. He tried to shake off the worries and once again focus on the words on the paper he had already read through three times. It really wasn't like him to be so absentminded. When he was Batman he had always been a multi-tasker, but all his thoughts had been about his son. He missed him.

He sighed in defeat before taking a small remote control and pointing it toward the Flat Screen TV hidden behind one of the walls of his office, the TV usually used for meetings with his colleges from other countries. The wall opened before the TV inside blinked to life and Bruce smiled when he pressed a button on the remote to connect with the surveillance camera he had set up in the manor. His smile turned to a frown when he noticed how quiet the manor was.

It didn't take him long to notice that Dick was sleeping, the baby was in his playpen sprawled on his blanket and surrounded by pillows and a few stuffed animals.

That was weird, Dick never slept at this time. He found Alfred with a duster in his hand going around the manor to clean and occasionally stopping to check up on Dick before going back to work. Bruce thought about calling before the door opened and he quickly turned off the TV and turned to his surprise visitor.

"Ah Lucius." He greeted, hoping his rush to turn off the television wasn't shown on his face, "I didn't hear you knock." He tried to play it cool, straightening the documents in his hands. The other man stared at him with a look akin to amusement.

"I'm sure." Lucius answered, before turning to the blank TV, a knowing look on his face "How's Dick?" He inquired making Bruce blush at having been caught.

"He's fine." The billionaire answered quickly before getting down to business. "What brings you here?"

"It's about the meeting tomorrow with one of our three ring binder clients." Bruce nodded; his mind finally focused enough to give him the information, a three ring binder client was what they called a big account with their company, usually someone who made one of the bigger investments with them.

"Montgomery was supposed to have a meeting with them along with Johnston, but the two have called in due to the cold going around, it seems that you'll be the one handling tomorrow." Bruce groaned at the news, Montgomery and Johnston were one of his best negotiators next to him and Lucius, he usually met up with the bigger clients himself but since the meeting was set up in the afternoon going way past work hours he had arranged for the two to go instead.

"Sorry Bruce." The older man apologized genuinely, wishing he could have done it himself but had other things to attend to.

"It's no problem Lucius, I'll just turn on the Wayne charm and hope to get it finished fast."

"I'll give it thirty minutes then." Lucuis teased, glancing down at the folder in his hands and seeing the name on the file before raising a brow. "Actually, make that ten." Bruce turned to the file to see a woman's name. Bruce shook his head.

He'll make that five.

* * *

Bruce usually arrived at the manor with Dick bulldozing him in his walker; today there were no signs of the loud squeaking of wheels on marble floors, or the happy giggles of his son rushing to meet him. The manor was quiet, making Bruce realize not for the first time that he had come home to this emptiness before Dick's arrival. He wondered how he could have lived like this, now he couldn't even imagine his life without his son in it.

"Alfred?" He called out, hating the slight echo of his voice, reminding him just how lonely he had been.

"Master Bruce." The butler greeted, as he walked down the winding stairs with a bottle in his hands.

"Where's Dick?" The butler sighed in answer, shaking his head at Bruce.

"Sleeping I'm afraid, he won't even feed and it's been hours since his last bottle." Bruce bit his lips in worry.

"Has he been sleeping all day?"

"No, after you left he was fine, though around lunch time he became a bit fussy and refused his bottle. He was a bit warm and I took his temperature but he wasn't so high to cause alarm." The butler explained taking the coat and suit case from his charge as he continued, "I've called Dr. Thompkins and she suggested that we wait as it may pass, but to keep an eye on him. I wanted to call you sooner sir but I thought it unnecessary to interrupt your work if the young master got over it." Alfred handed the bottle to him, "Maybe you'll have better luck with him."

He took the full bottle in his hands thanking the older man as he headed up the stairs. He walked into his bedroom, the lights dim as Dick slept on. He was swaddled in a blanket with a fuzzy beanie on his head to keep him warm. He placed the bottle on the drawer near his bed before he made his way towards the crib.

He bent down to pick up his baby, resting his cheek on the other to feel the slightly warmer skin. He noticed also the dark blush on Dick's face, the slight rash on his cheeks from this morning were prominent causing him to frown in worry. They should have already faded.

"Dick?" He whispered to the child which earned him a pained whimper, "baby?"

The child hiccupped out a weak sob in his arms and Bruce wished he knew what was wrong, worry began to eat up in his chest as information of different childhood illnesses zipped through his mind, categorizing them and putting them in order of mild to life threatening. He felt an icy sharp pain in his gut at the thought of it, knowing how vulnerable babies could be.

Carefully he walked to his bed rocking the child, trying to soothe his pain.

"Shh…Dick, it's okay, daddy's here." He muttered, bringing him to his chest and kissing him on his head. He laid Dick on the bed, gently pulling back the blanket he was encased in and noticed that Alfred had changed him into a footie pajama and along with the fuzzy beanie had put on a pair of newborn mittens on his hands to keep them warm. He took the bottle from the table and tried to place the tip of the nipple on his baby's mouth. Dick turned his head from the bottle, his face scrunching in dislike before crying out.

"Come on Dickie, you have to eat." He begged, knowing that babies, especially as tiny as Dick could not afford to miss a feeding. He tried again, this time more forcefully to slip the nipple in Dick's open mouth. This only made the baby cry out louder, the cries sounding like someone had pinched him. Bruce stopped, wincing at the volume.

"I'm sorry baby, but you have to eat, please?" Bruce picked him up again and cradled him in his arms, trying once again to get the baby to settle.

"Any luck Master Bruce?" Bruce shook his head as Alfred walked in.

"He seems like he's in pain Alfred." Alfred stood by him laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Would you like to call Dr. Thompkins again?" Bruce nodded, he didn't know what to do with things like these, which scared him. Give him Two-Face and Joker any day, but give him a sick baby and it was like his mind had gone blank.

He waited as Alfred went out and came back with the wireless phone in his hand. Balancing Dick on the crook of his arm he waited for the phone to be answered.

"Hello Bruce?" The concerned voice of Dr. Thompkins answered, "how's Dick doing?"

"He won't feed, he's warm and I don't know what to do Leslie." He admitted pulling his baby closer, wishing could magically switch places with his child so he wouldn't be suffering.

"Have you taken his temperature already?" The voice turned professional now, though it was still soft, soothing and sympathetic.

"Alfred did," he turned to the old man, "when did you take his temperature Alfred?"

"About two hours ago Master Bruce."

"Two hours ago, and he was slightly higher than normal."

"Okay, do you notice any other symptoms? Rashes, crying, trouble breathing?" Bruce looked down and for the first time noticed the way Dick breathing seeming to be more rapid than before. His tiny chest rising and taking in short rapid breaths, adding a desperate rasp to his breathing.

"He's breathing rapidly and there's a rash on his cheek from-"

"Bruce, take him to the emergency room now." That sentence stunned him, cutting off his voice and dropping a heavy stone in his stomach. The words 'emergency room' and all he could imagine was Dick taken away from him. He didn't hear the words after that until he felt a gentle shake on his arm. Alfred reached out a palm to offer to take the phone but he shook his head.

"Do you know what might be wrong with him?" He asked fearfully at the doctor on the other end and could hear a tired sigh from Leslie.

"Bruce honey, I don't know, this is just a precaution. Babies do tend to get sick a lot and their health deteriorates pretty fast and the symptoms he has are a cause for concern. Just take him to the emergency room and they'll confirm if he's ok."

"Okay." He answered his voice shaky as he gave the phone back to Alfred.

"What did she say Master Bruce?"

"We have to take Dick to the emergency room Alfred, now." The butler wasted no time and hurried to pack a bag as Bruce looked down on his sickly baby. He stood, hurrying to the car before he laid his forehead on his son.

"Please be alright Dick." He whispered, smelling in his light scent of baby powder, "I can't lose you."

**TBC…**


	9. Reality Check pt 2

**Note:** I've based most of the medical stuff off of my own experiences when we had to rush my nieces or nephews to the emergency room, so please ignore the medical inaccuracies. Also next chapters will be drabbles, which hopefully be much more fun for you guys, as I've finally added a few more guests to meet Dick.

* * *

The drive to the hospital was maddening, watching Dick continually fight for his breath, his tiny body burning up suddenly as if what was ailing him knew that it would soon be enduring a battle and doubling its effort to take the child down with him. He held Dick close, whispering soothing words to his son yet realizing that the words were meant for him. The cries of 'Breathe Dickie' and 'Stay with daddy' were meant to calm his emotions that have been in disarray due to his sons deteriorating health. The moment he had stepped out of the vehicle, Bruce hurried through the emergency room doors ignoring everything but the light weight in arms. The surprised stares of the other patients didn't deter him as he headed straight to the receptionists desk. A young woman, an intern if Bruce had any time to guess, sat flipping through a magazine, her face a picture of boredom as she didn't even bother to look up at him.

"I need a doctor." He growled before he was handed a few documents attached to a clipboard.

"Sign these and wait in line." She spoke monotonically her eyes still on the magazine before her; Bruce glared down at the documents. In his mind he wondered why anyone would hire someone who didn't seem to care about the people she was supposed to be helping. He ignored the documents and tried once again to get her attention.

"I need a doctor, now." He tried once more, his panic now building into anger. She wasn't fazed, and Bruce never felt the need to hit a woman until now.

"Look I'm sorry sir, but you have to wait in line." Bruce turned to the waiting patients around him, giving out a lesser version of his bat-glare to scare away the looks he was getting before turning back to the girl.

"My baby is sick." He tried to reason, his patience wearing thin, and paparazzi can all go to hell, all that mattered now was his baby. Everything else could wait, even his reputation.

"And the doctor will see you when it's your turn." The girl argued seeing that the man was not going to take the papers she tried to turn away from him, clearly annoyed at the interruption. Bruce had never been one to use his authority as an elite in Gotham nor his celebrity status to get what he wanted, preferring to earn them, but at this moment he was sure he earned some respect with everything he had done for this city.

"Do you know who I am?" He practically bellowed making sure his voice was filled with as much privileged authority he had. At this the girl turned to him ready to argue back when she caught sight of the sharply dressed billionaire glaring down at her.

She stopped suddenly, her words caught in her throat as her eyes fell on the tiny bundle in his arms.

"Well?" Bruce questioned, not even feeling sorry as the girl squawked and hurried toward the door pass the emergency room, her voice calling out for a doctor.

She came out a minute later out of breath and dragging an irate doctor by her lab coat.

"Michelle! What are you doing?!" The doctor being dragged questioned in exasperation causing the already murmuring audience to intensify their volume, watching a scandalous drama unfolding before them. Michelle as Bruce found out only pointed to him without saying a word. The doctor, a woman in her late fifties and graying hair in a lose bun turned to him. Her reaction mimicked that of the receptionist earlier, her mouth opened slightly before she found her composure enough to sputter out in surprise.

"Mr. Wayne! What brings you here?" The doctor straightened her posture and Bruce gave her credit as she seemed to pull himself together faster than the young receptionist did.

"My son is sick." Was all he said pulling back the blanket to show Dick to the doctor. The woman frowned before stepping forward toward the frantic father to look at the baby's condition. She noticed the rashes on his cheeks and the slight tint of blue now starting to paint the baby's lips.

"Help him," Bruce begged looking to the doctor, noticing the sign of Dick's body not getting enough oxygen. He didn't need to put up an act, he was sure he looked as scared as he felt, his composure cracking as he felt himself trembling around the bundle in his arms. The doctor wasted no time and nodded for him to follow her as she turned and quickly headed toward the private doors to get a room. Bruce sighed out in relief as he followed, ignoring the scoffs of the other patients.

* * *

He entered the white sterile room and almost backed away from the strong smell of antiseptic that burned his nose. The room was large but most of the space was filled with machines that stood sleek and cold on the side. He watched as the doctor walked around pulling out things she needed as another nurse entered behind him.

The nurse, clad in dark blue scrubs turned to him and stepped toward him to take Dick away from his arms but he would have none of it. He tightened his hold on his son and she blinked at him in surprise seeing his grip on the bundled baby. It didn't take long to take in his protective stance to realize that the first time father was reluctant to let anyone else take his baby from him. She understood that feeling well and instead gave a sad smile before nodding toward a baby scale.

"Could you take him out of diapers and clothes and lay him down there Mr. Wayne?" She asked before gently patting him on his arm. He followed her orders, unwrapping Dick from his warm cocoon of blankets and gently laying him on the scale, shushing him when he began to cry. His tiny body began trembling at losing the blanket and warm body holding him.

Bruce wished he could trade places with his boy, anything to stop him from suffering this. It was so painful to watch Dick's tiny form as he undressed him. It reminded Bruce how vulnerable this little life could be. In his mind he wondered if he had anything to do with his sons suffering.

It took him longer to actually calm down the shivering child than to undress him as he was finally able to let go of Dick. The baby started to grab at the empty air looking for the lost warmth and finding nothing. Bruce sighed sadly as Dick began to cry louder, his breathing turning even harsher.

The nurse watching the heartbreaking scene stepped forward and hurried to turn on the scale and get it over with. The numbers that appeared however marred a frown on her face.

_13.2 pds.__  
_  
"May I ask how much Richard weighed when he was born Mr. Wayne?" She politely directed the question to him. He answered without blinking, the information he had gotten from Dicks medical certificate ingrained in his mind.

"4.7 pds."

"Was he a preemie?" She pushed, surprised at that answer.

"No, he was full-term, but he's a LBW baby. Can I take him out now?" He didn't wait for her answer before he was already putting on his diaper and just wrapping him up in his blanket, knowing that the doctor might ask to undress him again later. He picked the infant out of the scale and cradled him in his arms once again.

"Of course, and how old is he now?"

"He just turned six months."

"Has he started on solids?" Bruce nodded at the question wondering when they would stop asking and just start treating him already. Though he knew they couldn't do anything before they could at least know a little about what was ailing him, he was sure he wouldn't want them to put him on anything without a clue as to what they were dealing with.

"Recently," He answered, getting back to the question "his pediatrician thought maybe he could gain some weight when he started."

"And how has he been so far on solids? Prior to him getting sick of course."

"He's been eating well, and just this morning he had a bowl of rice cereal."

"And is he allergic to any medication?"

"No." The nurse nodded going to a clipboard to write down her findings before giving it to the doctor.

"Could you please place him on the bed and Dr. Thornton will have a look at him." Bruce walked toward the doctor who had laid out a clean sheet on the bed and pulled on her stereoscope before nodding to him. The nurse walked away leaving the two to the examination.

He walked toward the makeshift bed laying Dick on it unwrapping him from the blanket while trying not to upset him further. It was useless as the baby could do nothing else to show his discomfort but cry, and along with it Bruce felt as if he was the one hurting him and making him cry, a feeling of helplessness weighing down on his chest.

He stepped back but was never farther than an arms reach as the doctor began her examination. He watched with critical eyes as the doctor prodded and turned his crying son in her arms none too gently. Clenching his jaw he gritted his teeth as Dick was quickly flipped over surprising him and making his cries turn desperate. _Didn't the woman know what she was doing?_ He raged silently but quickly tried to force himself to calm down, even though he would have preferred Leslie, the doctor now knew what she was doing. It was probably in his mind and his over-protectiveness that had him perceiving otherwise.

He watched as she checked his temperature once again, checking his breathing before frowning and sighing as she finished up. Once she pulled herself back Bruce took the baby in his arms covering him with a blanket. His heart pounded loudly in his chest as she took her stethoscope from her ears.

"Mr. Wayne, I'd like to do a few tests on him, before that I'd like to put him on a CPAP machine to help his breathing and hopefully clear his airways a bit before the tests begin." Bruce nodded diligently as the nurse came back and this time held out her hand to him waiting for him to give his baby to her in his own terms. Bruce looked down at Dick seeing the blue tinge turning a shade darker from all his screaming. He kissed the baby on the forehead tenderly, silently praying he would see him soon before handing the nurse his life and heart.

"He hates being alone." He offered to the nurse looking at her with all the desperation of a father could to a stranger holding his only child. The nurse looked up with him and all she could offer was a smile in reassurance.

"Then I'll be sure to stay with him at all times Mr. Wayne." It did nothing to soothe him but he nodded his approval anyway as she walked away leaving the emptiness to claim his lonely arms once again.

From the corner of his eyes he saw as the doctor stood before clearing her throat to get his full attention, once he looked up she nodded for him to follow her into her office.

"We'll follow them shortly, she'll just set up an incubator and CPAP for him at the pediatric ward, but I'd like to speak with you about the tests."

They entered the office and Bruce sat on the chair wishing he could go and find his baby, thoughts of never seeing him again making his knees go weak, wondering where his trained restraint in keeping appearances had gone.

The silence of the office was distressing; the whining silence between the two was filled with unanswered questions and apprehension. For once Bruce didn't want to know what would happen if worst come to worst.

"What will happen now?" He finally asked, knowing that the faster he was finished here, the faster Dick would be treated and the faster he'd most likely be able to see him.

"At the moment we'll put on oxygen but I want to do a few other tests. With his breathing we'll likely have to do a chest x-ray, and per procedure we'll have to get a blood test, a urine test and if possible…" The pause made him sit straighter, "I'd like to do a lumber puncture." Bruce ran through the procedures through his mind, his memory supplying him with the medical protocols, before they stopped at the last one.

"Lumber puncture?" He asked in disbelief, "you want to do a spinal tap on him?" He mind turned back to his son crying his lungs out on the scale, fighting for each breath.

"But why?"

"I just want to cross off a few things, and meningitis is one of the first that I want off. It's a cause for concern with his symptoms. The procedure is fairly safe," The doctor added quickly knowing how some parents felt about it. Of course Bruce knew, he had remembered reading up on it, he also remembered all the things he read up on meningitis. Knowing how aggressive it was, especially if it was bacteria caused- the bacteria spreading progressively and snuffing out a child's life in mere hours. A shudder coursed its way through his body at the thought.

"Mr. Wayne?" The voice brought him back as he looked up at the concerned doctor.

"Do what you have to." He answered in a steady voice, hiding the true fear he felt inside. The doctor looked at him with a searching look, almost as if she could see through him before she nodded.

"All right, we'll need you to sign a few papers though." Bruce wanted to snort, 'fairly safe' and they still needed him to sign papers for it.

If something did go wrong, nothing would be able to save them from the wrath of Batman, nor the wrath of an angry father with the power and money to back him up. Superman be damned, even he wouldn't be able to stop him.

He watched as a few minutes later papers were pushed in front of him, and for the first time felt the real weight of a parent. This was his decision alone. The life of his child held tightly in his hands around the thin pen hovering over the line where his signature would be written. He read through the waiver, his eyes checking every mark and grammar and fault while his head spun around in scenarios. His heart dropped at the word death on the paper.

He realized that he could turn to no one while he made a decision that could permanently scar Dick for the rest of his life or save him. As Batman, he made the decisions based on logic and instinct always careful not to base them on reckless emotion, but at least as Batman he could distant himself from the victims, no matter how close to home they were.

But this wasn't a stranger, wasn't some faceless victim, this was his son, his baby boy and the only thing he had left aside from his oldest friend Alfred.

"-yne?" He looked up from the documents to see the doctor looking at him, concern evident behind her visage of professionalism. Bruce ignored her question, ignoring the fact he had zoned out and was left unaware of his surroundings, something he would never have let happen in other circumstances.

With a quick once over at the document and before he knew it his signature was soon smoothly written on the paper. The silence was suffocating as he followed the doctor to the pediatric ward, anxious to see his son. They stopped at another room, a lot bigger and more lavish than the first, and there Dick lay clad in only in diapers as a tube and mask was covering his face. The nurse held the mask on while rubbing small circles on the baby's naked shoulders, trying to calm his whimpers.

"We'd like to keep him on the CPAP until he can start breathing on his own before we do the tests." Bruce nodded silently but his eyes stuck on Dick. He walked toward the nurse and his son, trying so hard to ignore the machine helping his son to breathe and carefully reached down to give Dick some comfort. A breath away from touching him, he stopped to stare at how large and rough his hands looked near the tiny baby. As if one touch could break him. He pulled back, afraid that he really would, he knew he was ten times stronger than most men, maybe ever more considering his training and the people he'd fought. What right did his hands have to touch something so innocent and vulnerable?

The nursed turned to him, nodding for him to continue, and silently questioning why he would stop now that Dick was within reach.

He looked down on his hands once more, before he felt warmth on them as the nurse gently took one of his hands and laid them on Dick's back.

"So he knows he's not alone anymore." She whispered and Bruce nodded. That's right. Dick was his just as he was Dick's. Even though he deserved nothing to have Dick in his life, he would give everything good he had. And right now, his son thought he was without the comfort of his father, and hadn't he promised him that he would always be there for him?

He knelt down to rest his cheek on the examination bed as he stared at his son. Reassuringly he ran a hand through Dick's thick fluff of hair and felt the tiny body relax a bit.

"Thank you." He whispered to the nurse.

* * *

It took another few minutes before the machine was turned off and the blue tint was no longer coloring Dick's lips.

"Mr. Wayne, we've readied the needle for the Spinal tap, if you would help us hold him down." Bruce wanted to shake his head, he really didn't want to hold down his child, but berated himself that this was necessary.

He watched helpless as they moved the unusually lethargic body in a curled position, pulling his knees to his chest and holding his head down. Dick weakly fought back, not liking the uncomfortable position and Bruce couldn't help but turn away as the doctor pulled out a hollow needle. For a moment he wished he could just turn away and run, never in his life had he been so afraid of a needle as much as he was now, the metal about to be punctured between his sons vertebrate near his spine. With an antiseptic rubbed around the area the doctor quickly slid the needle and Bruce gritted his teeth as Dick cried out suddenly, his shrieks already raspy from the previous crying.

"Sh…" He cooed to the baby, "It's ok baby, you're my big strong boy right?" Pressing a small kiss to the wiggling infant he once again offered a finger to which Dick latched on, trying to find comfort in his father. From the words and the lifeline he held on to Dick seemed to settle slowly.

"Good boy." He praised wishing everything would just finish. It was two minutes later before everything was done and he finally had his son in his arms again.

It was no later when he again had to give up the infant and no matter how much he wanted to take his young son and just hold him until all his pains were gone, he knew this was only the beginning of a long night.

It was hours before the tests were done, the spinal tap coming back negative and lifting a heavy weight off of his chest. The dread laced through his heart like a spider's web had unraveled a bit, but that didn't mean that Dick was out of the woods. It just meant that whatever Dick was suffering from wasn't from that particular bacteria, which left thousands of others even more vicious.

He found himself in the doctors office not too long after, waiting on the diagnosis and for the first time Bruce didn't know what to do or to expect, no longer could he turn to Batman for help, because no matter how well prepared anyone could be, no one could really prepare themselves for parenthood and all that brought with it.

This wasn't Batman and Bruce Wayne anymore; this was Bruce Wayne, a father of a sick six month old baby. The vigilante lifestyle was now taking a backseat to fatherhood. This was his priority now, because without his son, there was no Gotham for him anymore.

* * *

Bruce shifted in his seat, his nerves on edge as he found himself quietly praying for answers. The sound of the door opening behind was the worse and best sound he heard the whole day as the doctor seated herself in front of him.

"Mister Wayne…" she began her voice tired and Bruce had never felt anything like the pain he was feeling right now.

"What…?" He whispered out, his voice shaky as he wondered if he really wanted to know, the question was left unfinished but the doctor knew enough to answer.

"Respiratory syncytial virus or RSV."

"But that's…"

"The common cold."

"A cold?" Bruce asked; his thoughts on the horrible symptoms Dick had showed. All the panic and suffering, from a simple cold?

"Yes, but for Dick that RSV turned into more than just a cold, it developed into pneumonia, a very aggressive one from what we've seen."

"So he'll be fine?" He let out a huge breath; he welcomed the calmness as it spread through his veins.

"Well I'd like to keep him here and continue him on CPAP just to make sure. His breathing troubles me especially the fact that if left unchecked he seems to just stop breathing on his own." Bruce felt his heart jump at that.

"But other than that he should be fine in a few days."

"I don't get it how did he get pneumonia? I mean, my butler was sick for a bit but he kept himself away and cleaned everything twice, he would never let Dick get sick, how…"

"It's the cold season Mister Wayne, even being in contact with someone who was around anyone with the cold virus can transfer the virus to him. That's why we always remind parents to shower or even to just wash their hands before holding their baby." Bruce thought back to himself, realization dawning on him as he remembered that the office had been coming down with a cold, how he had come home without any thought and went straight to Dick.

It was his fault Dick had gotten like this, he had been stupid enough to get careless and it nearly cost Dick his life. The one thing that mattered most to him and he couldn't even protect him properly.

"Are you okay Mister Wayne."

"Can I see him?"

"Of course, though for now we've kept him a bit quarantined to make sure he is kept away from anything else that may worsen his condition, but he'll be fine with due time."

"Thank you." He whispered out, laying his face on his palms as he slouched in his seat. "Thank you." And relief was able to finally settle his bones.

* * *

He stood, now behind the glass door as a comforting hand placed itself on his shoulder.

"Master Bruce." Alfred spoke through his daze, slowly trying to bring him out of his thoughts.

"It was my fault Alfred; I knew people in the office were getting sick and I just…"

"Stop right there," The Englishman scolded, "I am not letting you go down that road." With a quick pull Alfred had spun him away from the glass window where Dick lay behind. Alfred peered into the younger mans eyes "You can't expect to protect the young Master from everything Master Bruce. This is not a perfect world and you are not a perfect father, nor will you ever be. But you don't need to be a perfect father to be able to give that child everything he deserves."

Bruce nodded wordlessly as he looked back to Dick, his son placed inside an incubator as a nurse came by for another CPAP session to help his breathing.

"Master Bruce, "Alfred continued watching the same scene, "Dick has a father who loves him and would do anything to protect him, who'll probably spoil him silly," the two chuckled at that, "and he could have had gotten no better father than the one he has right now."

Bruce knew how much Alfred held off on his words, always loyal but distant, this was the first time the Englishman had said how he really felt without holding out on any emotion. Even though Bruce knew that Alfred never tried to replace himself as his father, the gentleman saw himself as that anyway. And neither of them would admit it, their pride and respect never letting them voice out how much they saw each other as father and son, but with the arrival of Dick, they were now willing to show a bit more but there was no need for words to be said. They were family, maybe still a little broken but complete in their own way.

"He'll be fine Master Bruce." The two watched through the glass window at Dick their conversation starting to quiet down to a calmed lull "his dad is Batman after all." Bruce snorted at the comment yet felt a smile warm up to his lips watching as Dick tried to fight off the mask that the nurse was trying to put on him.

"Yeah." He agreed whole-heartedly, "his Batman's son all right." He turned to the older man.

_Just like I'm yours._

**TBC…**

**LBW**- Low Birth weight - My sister was a low birth weight baby even though she was full termed. It happens; it doesn't necessarily mean that you're a preemie.


	10. Drabbles pt 1

**Notes: **So this is my way of trying to combat some of my laziness, though lately I can't seem to type down one sentence without messing it up. It's frustrating. Hopefully some people will enjoy these little snippets seeing as there will be a few more of these before I get back to writing full chapters.

* * *

**Home:**

Alfred watched the passing scenery with a new sense of appreciation as he glanced back at the rear view mirror. A slither of a smile tugged on his lips at the almost comical sight of the young father fervently trying to fight off sleep. The way his head would loll slightly side to side reminded the butler of when Bruce had been but a boy.

Quickly as if catching himself, Bruce shook his head trying to keep awake though Alfred wished he would just let sleep take him. It would be good for him. After the few days spent in the hospital (and even with practice of no sleep from his vigilante lifestyle) everyone had limits. And the time in the hospital was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting for the young father.

Undoubtedly Bruce had refused to leave his sons side, not even for one of the most important meetings for his company. Lucius, understanding the situation had calmed the other representatives down to explain the situation and was able to reschedule it. Saving the company and Bruce's reputation, but then again Alfred never doubted the other mans capabilities. This time they were fortunate enough to get away with Bruce's company intact and most importantly with Dick healthy and alive.

Alfred noted as Bruce turned his eyes to the car seat locked in place by his side. Carefully, he laid a large hand on the baby, touching the soft cheeks tenderly. The simple gesture squeezed Alfred's heart knowing that Bruce was probably checking if his son was still breathing.

Alfred watched as his shoulders relaxed a little, reassured that his baby was still fine after the few days in the hospital. It didn't take long before Bruce sat back and in another minute his head was lolling again.

With a final glance Alfred let a smile grace his lips as Master Bruce had finally fallen asleep, suit wrinkled, his once slicked hair in a mess and a dark bags under his eyes the young father had his head leaning on the foot of his sons car seat. His arm unconsciously draped protectively over the sleeping baby.

Quietly Alfred allowed the tinted window that separated him and his charges roll up, giving the two sleeping Wayne's there much-needed rest.

* * *

**Fan-Club:**

Bruce was used to being stared at. He was used to being followed around, photographed and having his face plastered on every magazine in Gotham. It came with the power and money and frankly he had grown up with it his whole life. He wasn't however; used to having mothers and older women stare at him from behind store aisles while they waited for him to choose what type of diaper brand he would buy his son.

It really shouldn't have been any different from having the type of cologne or suit he used published in every magazine, yet somehow it was. Not only was he being judged on what he used for his baby, but every decision he made, down to what Dick wore was used to judge on what kind of parent he was.

It was…slightly unnerving to say the least. From the corner of his eyes he watched a few women frown as he pulled out a diaper brand before he quickly pushed it back to its place before looking further down the aisle.

He really should have let Alfred do the shopping, but Lucius had reminded him that he should be seen out with Dick. Speaking of Dick, he glanced down at the sleeping baby on his chest held up on a carrier, the baby oblivious to his daddy's trouble.

"_He looks so natural with him."_ He heard an older woman whisper as the others nodded in agreement, he kept hearing '_aws_' and '_so cute'_ as he finally pulled the brand of diapers that Alfred usually bought and placed them in his cart.

"_Did you see the brand he bought?"_ A young mother asked.

"_It's the same one I buy for my baby!"_ Another mother squealed.

Bruce mentally shook his head in disbelief. This was seriously crazy. Not only was he attracting more females than ever, but it seemed even married women with children had become part of his fan club. He pushed his cart forward and forced himself to smile at the women before he heard the not so subtle steps of the women following behind him.

He hoped this was enough publicity for Lucius because after this he was definitely leaving all the shopping back to Alfred.

* * *

**Grandfather: ****  
**  
When Alfred had taken the opportunity to be employed by the Waynes; he had been distant, putting as much space between him and his employers. He was not a man to mix business with personal life and thought it undignified to interrupt the life of his boss from his family. It was the reason he kept himself at bay even when Master Thomas and Madam Martha passed on.

No matter how much he wanted to take the grieving child in his arms he convinced himself that Bruce would not welcome the comfort of a mere employee.

That had been the biggest regret in his life.

For years he had feared that maybe his unsympathetic professionalism towards Master Bruce had pushed the child into darkness and in turn drove the young man to create Batman. These thoughts were ones that kept him up at night while he waited for his charge to come home. Hoping that the night had been fair and all he would have to do was check on a few bruises.

Shaking his head from his unsavory thoughts the old man quickly pushed the thoughts back and reminded himself of his job. He stopped in front of a familiar door and pushed open the polished wood where he was greeted by the desperate wails of young Master Dick. He walked toward the crib and checked on the crying child. Hands tightly closed in fists, red faced with tears freely rolling down he lifted the crying baby from the crib and laid the lad in his arms.

Looking down at the baby now, he remembered the small promise he made when he had seen what his cold demeanor had done in the past. So with softness he never allowed himself to show while in his uniform the old butler placed a kiss on the baby's forehead.

"Hush now child," he whispered rocking the baby as the crying turned to soft whimpers , "no need for those tears, your grandfather is here."

* * *

**Haircut:****  
**  
Bruce tilted his head and watched as Dick mirrored him. The two pools of crystal blues met, a toothless smile suddenly making one set of blue eyes even brighter. Bruce smiled back at the baby before his gaze once more settled on the item in his sons' hair.

He had always known his butlers odd sense of humor. Sarcastic remarks never far behind, Bruce would admit that he was one of the few who could surprise him. But he never thought the older gentleman would go so low as to play along with the others.

It had started a week ago when he had gotten his son back from a day with his uncle Clark. He was sure he could burn a hold with his gaze as Clark had just given him a nervous smile, scratching his head and giving him the 'innocent farmer boy' look that would have worked on anyone. The elastic head band with a yellow flower on his sons' hair was not something Bruce could easily forgive. Of course Clark had explained that Dick kept pulling his hair which would end with him crying and the head band was the only thing he could find to stop the baby from hurting himself. Where he even got the yellow headband Bruce thought better than to question and left it at that.

He had excused the incident as a 'Clark-thing' but a few days later after an afternoon with Dinah and Diana, Bruce received Dick with his hair pulled up in tiny pig tails and braids adored with ribbons and bows. Bruce had ignored the coos of the women as Dick had smiled at him oblivious to the antics of his aunts.

Bruce had taken a longer time to get over but finally pushed the incident in the back of his mind telling himself that the two women probably wanted to ride out every girl's fantasy of dressing up a baby.

But…this…this he couldn't excuse as a 'Clark-thing' or a girls fantasy dress-up. No, this was the work of his butler. Alfred. That was not easily ignored.

"Hmmm…" Bruce softly fingered the hello kitty clip that kept Dick's hair from falling into his eyes before re-clipping the item to capture the hair that had slipped out.

"Ahem." Bruce turned from the baby to the older gentleman at his side and nodded.

The message was clear.

Dick needed a haircut.

* * *

**Lullaby:**

Alfred stood by the door of Master Bruce's bedroom silently arguing if it would be impudent of him to just go in. He had been passing by when he heard Master Dick crying and noting the late hour wondered if maybe the young father needed assistance in caring for the young master. He knew he should probably let Master Bruce handle it but concern won over as he peeked inside the room to see if everything was all right. He was met with the scene of Dick in his fathers' arms, his head rested on his father's broad chest with Bruce slowly swaying back and forth as if practicing the steps to a slow waltz as he slowly rocked the baby back to sleep. Dick's cries were softening now as he seemed to be falling asleep, his eyes blinking sleepily as his head would loll to one side before he would suddenly startle himself awake and whimper. Alfred watched on as Master Bruce began to hum softly.

The soft notes of a lullaby not heard for years echoed through the room and Alfred felt himself relax, knowing that the two would be okay as Dick finally fell asleep, both from his fathers' slow rocking and the fading tune of a forgotten lullaby.

* * *

**Babs:**

It had been one of the few parties Bruce attended with Dick in tow. The usual crowd of women who hung on his arms was now staying back, eyes glued to the baby uncertain on how to approach the young father. It was actually a big relief to not put up a face and indulge them. Right now he was just a parent tending to his baby. It was one of the perks of fatherhood he supposed.

"Hey!" A voice suddenly called out to him and he looked down to see a red-haired girl tugging on his pants.

"Hello." He greeted but the girl ignored it, her bright green eyes focused on Dick.

"Can I hold the baby?" The little girl asked pointing at the baby in Bruce's hands. He tilted his head at the determined look of the girl before looking around, hoping to find the girls parents. He didn't look for long before he saw a man heading their way, his eyes widening at seeing who his little girl had been talking to.

"Barbara!" The man scolded before looking at him apologetically.

"I'm so sorry about this Mister Wayne." The man apologized which Bruce quickly waved off.

Dick, startled from chewing on his fathers' silk tie looked down at the girl, bouncing suddenly when he saw a potential playmate.

"It's no problem, she just wanted to say hi to Dick right Barbara?"

"Yeah, and I wanna hold'em." The girl smiled up, holding his hands open in anticipation motioning for the billionaire to give her the child before being quickly chastened by her father.

"No, honey, you're too small to be carrying him." At this the girl widened her eyes at her father which Bruce was sure won her many arguments.

"But you said I was a big girl daddy, I'm already five. I can carry him!" She argued before tugging on his pant legs again.

"Please mister, I'm a big girl now. Daddy says so. Can I please carry the baby?!" Jim was about to scold her again before Bruce bent down to see eye to eye with the girl.

"I'm sorry Barbara, I can't let you carry him by yourself, but if you want, I can let you carry him with my help, is that okay?" The girl nodded as Bruce carefully placed his son in her arms though he was careful to still hold most of the weight for her.

"I'm sorry about this Mister Wayne." The cop bit his lips in embarrassment. Bruce looked back at the red-haired man and smiled. He had always liked the cop, after meeting Jim a few times at charity balls he knew that the man unlike most of Gothams cops he was different. It helped that now he was able to connect to the man with their children.

"It's no problem at all Jim. And please call me Bruce." The man nodded before awkwardly running a hand over his hair.

"Ow!" The two adults quickly turned back to the kids to see Dick with a fistful of Barbara's red hair. Bruce tried to quickly pull the strands away from the baby.

"Daddy, he pulled my hair!" The child pouted rubbing her head as she pointed to the baby. Bruce opened his mouth to apologize seeing some strands still in Dick's fist but was cut off from Jim.

"He's just a baby honey, he doesn't know any better." The man tried to soothe.

"But he was laughing!" The girl accused giving another pout. The three turned to the baby who only proved her point as he burst into giggles, waving the souvenir red strands still in his grip.

"See!" She pointed before Jim sighed.

"He just thinks it's funny." The man tried again.

"So he did mean it!" The girl accused as Jim shook his head.

"No honey, he just thinks everything is funny, you know he's a baby, I'm sure he doesn't know he hurt you."

"Really?" The girl inquired suspiciously before turning back to the baby.

"Yes, I think he just wants to play." At this, Bruce kneeled down once more so that Dick was able to be eye to eye with his victim. He eyed the baby's hands hoping he wouldn't attack the poor girl again.

"Did you just want to play little baby?" Dick tilted his head at the question before opening his mouth.

"Bli-ah-bla-boma-pa." He babbled out in his own language as Barbara giggled.

"You're a funny baby!" She took the fisted hands of the tiny tot and waved them with hers. The two father sighed at the children and shared a smile before little Barbara turned to her father.

"Daddy, I want a little brother!"

Bruce had never seen a man turn as red as their hair faster than Jim Gordon did at that moment.

**TBC…**


	11. Drabbles pt 2

**Note:** Just wanted to take this time to answer a few questions that a few have been asking. Will Dick be introduced as Robin in this? Well, originally this was only going to go up to Dick's first year, meaning I'm taking him up to his first words and his first steps but not his introduction as Robin, however, I haven't thought that far ahead, though I might add a little look in the future. The thing is, there are so many great stories about Dick's first year as Robin in the fandom already that I'm not original enough to think of new ones. But fear not I do have a few more chapters ahead. So look forward to those. My guess is that we have about six to seven more chapters before I wrap it up. For now enjoy some light-hearted drabbles.

As always thank you for the continuing support and the wonderful reviews. Any guesses on who will be coming in the next drabble?

* * *

**Spoiled:**

It wasn't that Clark believed that Bruce wouldn't raise Dick to be a respectable young man. If anything Clark expected a lot from the baby as he grew, considering that his father was both Bruce Wayne aka Batman. But, that was just it; Dick was the son of Bruce Wayne and _The_ Batman. Who else could brag to the world that their father was not only one of the richest men alive but he was the legendary Batman who had countless times saved the world? So maybe Clark was a little worried that Dick might grow up a bit spoiled. Actually if the gifts that flooded Dick's toy room were any indication Clark already knew that Dick would no doubt grow up like a little prince.

Not that he wasn't already.

But it wasn't like he could put all the blame on Bruce. He has to admit that he does his own share of coddling Dick. So there was no way ANY child would grow up unspoiled by that. Dick had practically two of the most powerful men on their knees with one look. That was where Alfred came in, because someone really needed to say no and Clark was Bruce was too weak to deny those wide palatinate blues.

* * *

**Weak:**

Contrary to what Master Bruce and Master Clark thought, Alfred was not a tyrant in raising his youngest charge. True, he hated seeing Master Dick with even a speck on dirt on his clothes and his diet consisted of only the best and healthiest food. Admittedly even the older man had his moments. Besides there were only so many times you could say no to Richard Wayne. With that said Alfred sighed in defeat as wide puppy eyes stared at him, the shining familiar blues undoing years of practiced aloofness.

Admitting defeat in a losing battle Alfred turned to a cabinet and dug behind a few boxes to pull out a hidden treasure. Wrinkling his nose in distaste of the colorful snacks he gingerly poured a small amount of the sugary cereal onto Master Dicks highchair. The baby seeing the reward from his work attacked the rare goods, popping them in his mouth quickly and chewing happily on them.

Alfred soon shoved the rest of the cereal back to its hiding place before turning to the baby.

"Now don't go babbling to your father about this."

* * *

**Uncle:**

Even though Clark worked in an industry that made itself its business to stick its nose in everything, did not mean that he liked reading about them. On the contrary he tended to avoid them, _especially _celebrity magazines. To him the colorful articles were nothing more than baseless rumors and assumptions concocted by people with way too much time on their hands. And it boggled his mind how anyone would want to know about what type of shampoo a star uses or what color their undergarments were that day.

So he shouldn't have even glanced twice at the magazine splayed over on Lois's desk, but the brightly printed paper had been turned to a picture of a certain billionaire baby. Clark remembered vaguely Bruce telling him about hiring a professional baby photographer to give out new pictures to the public.

The photo was of Dick dressed in a blue footie pajama that was purposely chosen to match the shade of his eyes, bringing out those blues that everyone was so in love with. Dick was smiling at the picture, his eyes which were turned to the camera was staring a little ways, which Clark assumed was Bruce who had been standing behind the photographer. It wasn't like he was really into the magazine, but it was his nephew…practically. So he took the magazine to his desk, skimming through the article title _Bruce's billion dollar baby _before shaking his head and continuing on. Of course like every celebrity magazine there a poll on the end asking people to vote, on this particular magazine it asked who America's cutest baby was. It wasn't as if he was really into the magazine, he was just curious that's all. So what if he went online to take the poll, and so what if over the course of a few hours that he should have been working was spent time clicking away on a certain Wayne name. He had time to spare anyway.

And really he just bought the next magazine because clearly he was just a bit curious, it's not like it was a surprise that Dick had won the poll. He didn't go up telling the whole world the fact that contest wasn't even a contest because obviously Dick would win, he just told Lois and Jimmy and maybe a few people he met on the way up. And he certainly wasn't like those overly annoying parents who boasted every little thing their children did. That was Bruce's job.

He was just a proud uncle damn it. Leave him alone.

* * *

**Bargaining:**

There was a strict rule that Bruce set up when he started his vigilante lifestyle. It was that bargaining-was the last option. It did no good when the criminal thought he had the upper hand. So Batman was always quick to act when he saw any opportunity the criminal had to getting a hostage. Even if they did have a hostage Batman dealt with it swiftly, his plan was always to strike even before they could open their mouth to ask to a trade. It was what kept many deaths from occurring and many criminals from escaping.

Unfortunately, those same rules didn't apply very well to everything else. As of right now, his seven month old son was holding his car keys hostage.

"Come on Dickie, give the keys to daddy." He held a palm open to his son who stared at the hand before shaking his head and tightening his hold on his hostage. Bruce had earlier tried to just pry the keys from the baby's hands only to earn an ear splitting tantrum and a look of disapproval from his butler.

Even for a man who fought in the shadows and used every opportunity to get the job done Bruce was also a man of honor, he would not be swayed to abandon his rules.

…but… there were exceptions to all the rules and this…could be one of them. So finally he brought out his secret weapon.

"Look Dickie," He waved a stuffed elephant that Dick seemed to be so found of lately in front of the infants face, "you want Zitka?" Hopefully the baby would give up his keys to get his friend.

It seemed to work as the child looked up at the stuffed elephant before looking at the keys in his hands as he seemed to contemplate on which one he wanted more. Bruce almost felt giddy with excitement as one of his tiny hands let go of the keys and raised to grab the toy.

"No baby, first give the keys to daddy." He pulled the toy away from the child's reach as he once again tried to carefully take the keys from his hands. Suddenly as if sensing the trick the baby looked down at the keys slowly being pulled from his grip. In that short realization the baby pulled back once again gripping the keys to his chest and whining.

"Aw come on." Bruce wanted to hit himself, so close.

"Come on Dickie, Zitka for the keys, fair trade right?" The baby looked up at his dad his eyes dancing from his stuffed toy to the keys before turning to his dad once again. Suddenly a deep pout formed on his lips.

"Oh no…"

_A while later…_

Alfred walked into the study room where he had left his two charges earlier and raised a white brow at the adult sitting on the floor his head down in defeat, something that would have been unheard of to see. The reason for his charges sudden change of aura was sitting by him with a set of keys in one hand and a stuffed elephant in another.

Now that was one battle he was sure even Batman couldn't win.

* * *

**Roy:**

"Queen." Oliver Queen wished he could be anywhere but here right now. Here, meaning standing in front of Wayne manor getting glared at by one of the few men who could scare him. The smile on his face faltered before dropping automatically.

"Ah, Bruce…good to see you." The other billionaire greeted waiting for the other man to let him in. Sharp blue eyes burned through him probably taking in his appearance. He twitched uncomfortably from the critical eye hoping that what he was wearing was fine. He had prepared himself in a professional manner, making sure his suit was pressed and without a hint of lint. It wasn't long before those same eyes settled on the small child behind him.

_Oh, right._

"Er, this is Roy Harper, he's a family friend. His parents asked me baby sit him for a while." The two ignored the shout of 'I'm not a baby!' before Bruce turned around and silently gave the order to follow him in. Sighing, Oliver turned to the pouting toddler behind him.

"Come on kid, let's get this over with." The tiny red head crossed his arms before glaring up at him.

"You better be fast." The fiery child pursed his lips making Oliver laugh.

"Yeah yeah kid, just come on and don't make any trouble." The two entered the Wayne manor and even coming from affluent backgrounds themselves couldn't help but gape at the priceless paintings wonderfully positioned around the house. The shining marble floors and high ceilings making the manor seem more like a castle than anything.

Ollie kept glancing at the gaping child making sure he didn't fall behind and get lost. It wasn't his plan to take the kid with him and meet Bruce out of costume. In truth many of them stayed away from each other seeing as they had their own lives to live. It was never a good thing to mix their superhero lives with their civilian personas, excluding of course Superman and Batman which couldn't be help considering their occupation.

Unfortunately this time it couldn't be help as the two billionaires shared a mutual client that had dealings with both their companies.

The two quietly followed the brunet as they were led to a wide room that housed a finely carved oak table on the side. Two uncomfortable looking antique chairs were positioned across from each other between the oak desk. The desk was covered in paperwork which Ollie assumed were for the client. On the opposite side of the room was a small playpen which caged the baby Wayne. Dick was in his bumper seat surrounded by blocks as the tiny tot looked up from chewing on the blocks in each of his hand.

"Hey there little man." He greeted going over to the baby and ruffling his hair and earning a small smile from the baby. He turned back to the child who was following him and lightly pulled the toddler closer to his company.

"Roy this is Dick, why don't you play here with him while me and Mr. Wayne there do some boring paper work?" He pointed to the desk where Bruce was waiting. He hoped that the kid would listen to him for once; the kid had a tendency to disobey his every order. The red head turned to look at the drooling baby and scrunched his face in disgust.

"No. I don't want to. I'm five, I'm not a baby."

"Come on kid," he nudged, "if you just sit here and be quiet I'll treat ya to some ice cream later." The red head tilted his head as if deciding before nodding.

"Fine, but I get three scoops." Roy held up three of his stubby fingers daring the older man to refuse.

"Fine whatever, I'm not gonna be the one dealing with your sugar rush anyway." He mumbled before carrying the toddler over the pen next to the baby.

"Play nice." He warned before walking to the other side of the room.

Roy hated this. Why didn't mommy and daddy take him with them? All they said was that they were going to do some adult things and they wouldn't be able to take him. But he was five! He was practically an adult already. Huffing at the outcome of his day he took a look at the baby next to him feasting on the block.

"That's not how you play wif it." He explained, "you got'sa build it to make a castle. Here I'll show you."

_Babies are so dumb. _He thought as he began to gather the scattered blocks to show the right way to play with them_._

The infant suddenly interested with his new playmate watched as the other boy slowly began to stack one block on top of the other. It wasn't long before he had soon used all of them to make a decent sized building. Roy sat back frowning at the fact that he was done when he turned to the baby before him.

Dick looked down at his own blocks in his hands before offering one of them to the redhead. Roy crawled forward to take the offered toy when it suddenly went flying towards him, hitting him on his head.

"Hey!" He shouted at the baby rubbing the small bump on his head as the baby giggled, "That's not funny!" He pouted ignoring the warning shout of 'Roy!' from his guardian. Dick suddenly widened his eyes, stopping his giggling before once again offering the other block in his grasp as a peace offering. The two men watched as the red haired child eyed the baby suspiciously before slowly going down to grab the block.

Taking the block the red head turned to add to his building, unfortunately from him he was now in arms reach of the baby and not a second later did he feel a sharp pain on his head where the baby had grabbed a fist full of his short red hair.

"Ow!" He jerked away from the baby's hold violently, ready to do the same to the baby. He was stopped when he was suddenly lifted up by his armpits by his guardian. The man sensing what the older child would do had run over, fear of dying a painful death being his fuel.

"Don't do that! You want me to die?" The blond asked tactlessly peering from the corner of his eyes at Bruce who had already been standing up. He waited as the child finally stopped wiggling in his hold before lifting him eye to eye at arms length.

"Look kid, don't do anything rash ok? No slapping, hitting, hair pulling and I'll take you to the slides too, we got a deal?" The red head glared at the baby, but the thought of going to the slides…he nodded reluctantly before he was finally released.

Seeing that he had gotten through to the kid, the blond slowly walked away glancing a few times at the two children before finding his way back to his seat. That was too close.

"So…where were we?" Bruce seeing the situation had been defused yet a bit wary continued on as he handed the other man his stack of papers to look over.

It was a few minutes later when the two men were well into the documents before them that Ollie felt rather then saw the hand lifting up from the corner of his eyes. Too late and far away from the two children he could only watch in horror as Roy had taken a chubby cheek between his finger and pinched the soft flesh.

"Now we're even." The child said smugly as wide blues shined with tears and a deep pout formed. Like the calm before the storm the red head walked out of the play pen and in front of the two men, large green eyes staring up at his frozen guardian in innocence.

"You never said no pinching." Roy explained unaware of the danger he just put them in as he covered his ears right as a loud wail echoed around the room. The cheek that was pinched was already turning pink and swelling slightly and he knew without a doubt that there was no way he could avoid the pain that was coming. The archer stood there feeling crackling of thunder behind him and feeling a deep seated dread plunge his stomach.

_Aw crap_, he knew he shouldn't have brought the kid with him.

**TBC**


	12. Drabbles pt 3

**Chapter twelve**

**AN: **I sincerely apologize for this late update, work has been hectic, and staring at a computer screen for nine hours a day can really discourage a girl from looking at one at home. The only good thing is I have more time for my imagination to run off, as I will most likely be posting up one-shots this week. Unfortunately my mind tends to go over board on these things.

* * *

**Ninja:**

It wasn't long before Bruce realized that no matter how much he wanted his son to stay as tiny and dependent on him as he was now, Dick would eventually start to grow up. That moment fully became concrete when Dick had started to test his body and had finally started to put his arms and legs to use as he learned how to crawl. It had taken a few weeks after learning that he could move his arms and legs at will and a few meetings with Dick's face and the floor that the baby was finally able to crawl.

That was probably also the moment that Alfred started to learn that he could no longer leave the baby alone even for a few minutes. Because a minute or two was the only time Dick needed before he disappeared. It usually ended with Bruce coming home from work to find Alfred running around trying to find the tiny ninja. Today was no different as he entered the foyer. Alfred, looking slightly abashed with a wiggling baby in his arms.

"Ah, Master Bruce welcome home." The butler sighed in relief putting the baby down to take the brief case Bruce handed to him. The moment Dick touched the ground he was off, crawling away to some place that had probably caught his attention. Bruce could do nothing but run after his little ninja before he could once again find a curtain or cupboard to hide in.

* * *

**Daddy's milk:**

Bruce laid on his bed slowly drifting off to sleep when tiny warm hands softly pushed on his chest. He peeked from his arms which were thrown over his eyes at Dick who was dressed in his pajamas. It was late and Dick had yet to fall sleep. The baby fussing every time he tried to lay him in his crib. He finally gave up and just took him to his bed, hoping that the baby would find comfort with him and find his sleep. But the way Dick kept crawling around him and trying to wake him up wasn't very promising.

"Come on Dickie, time to sleep." He mumbled to the child and earned a pat from the baby.

"No, Dickie, daddy's sleepy." He uselessly tried to explained. The baby looked up at him before giggling. Bruce sighed, he couldn't stay mad at that face. A few minutes later he suddenly he felt something pinch his nipple and he looked down to see the baby fascinated with his chest. He was shirtless as he never like sleeping with a shirt on and Dick seemed to have found interest on his chest. The tiny fingers on his sensitive area made him laugh sleepily.

"Dickie, no no, that's daddy's chest." He chuckled out closing his eyes once more at the baby. He shook his head when the baby didn't seem to pay any attention to him and crawled over his daddy to straddle his stomach, he unconsciously lifted an arm to circle around his son so he wouldn't fall.

It was probably a few minutes later when he was dozing that he felt it. Something gummy and wet had latched on to his nipple and had him jerking up slightly, the sensation both foreign and ticklish. He looked down at Dick sucking on one of his nipples while looking at him with large innocent eyes. Bruce laughed and laid his head back down.

"Well, you won't find anything there baby, sorry." The baby frowned probably already realizing what Bruce had pointed out. The young father was about to lift the baby off his chest when he felt a sudden sharp pain as the baby seemed to tighten his gums around his sensitive nipple. Quickly and carefully he lifted the baby off of his chest and looked down at his drool covered chest. His right nipple was turning a bit red and Bruce turned to the baby.

"How can you bite so hard when you don't even have teeth?" He questioned the baby, Dick only tilted his head as a glob of drool dripped down on him. Wait…Dick was turning eight months soon, weren't kids at that age be…

He laid the baby down and lifted himself on his elbows, now completely awake. He ran a finger over the soft gums watching Dick's eyes cross to try and focus on his hand. It was then that he felt it, right on the baby's bottom gums was something hard that definitely wasn't there before. He looked down and eyed the tiny gleaming tooth that was barely there. But it was…

"Dickie, you're teething…?"

* * *

**Baby Bat:**

Dinah had never really given thought to the superhero names that some had picked for themselves. Until right now that is. Suddenly all she could think of was all the heroes she worked with and the origin of their names. Superman and Wonder Woman were pretty obvious so there wasn't really much thought to put on them. Some she realized tended to go for colors, Green Lantern, Red Tornado, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, she could go on. She was pretty sure that half of the heroes had a color, (herself included) tacked to their name. Others likened themselves to their powers like Flash and Green Arrow (another color). While others still (herself included-actually she was a double whammy, a color and an animal) named themselves after animals. That was probably one of the toughest, obviously because no one would pick to be named as the 'Fierce bunny' or 'Steel Porcupine' (though the latter sounded pretty good to her). While birds seemed to be one of the most popular picks; Hawk, Dove, Canary, Falcon, Owl, Eagle, Crow…

Wow… well, moving on.

Those who were named after animals were the ones that were simply amusing to think about. But it was when some superheroes took on the name and seemed to live up to their animal that Dinah thought they were going overboard. Not that anyone would be stupid enough to point that out to Batman. Having a cave which she had heard from Superman had actual bats in it and naming everything after himself- the Batmobile, batarangs, Bat-computer… was a little much in her book.

But seeing the scene before her now though, she really didn't mind it. Besides staying in the dark and going out only in nighttime, this was probably one of the cuter aspects of bats that she never bothered to remember. Her eyes which had been focused on the look of 'don't say anything' on Batman's face panned down at where Dick was securely tied with a type of cloth to the mans chest, like a baby bat to his mother.

Now if they were only hanging upside down…

* * *

**Monkey see:**

Bruce grunted heavily ignoring the burning in his arms as he lifted his body once again. Muscles bulging, his body covered in sweat, his discarded shirt lay on the floor by him as he counted out to himself, each number a slow breath.

"_854…855…_" Currently the young father was in the gym of the large manor catching up on his training. Like most of his obsessive driven routine he was intent on doing his thousand sit-ups, pull ups and push-ups before going through another rigorous set of weight lifting. A few yards away from him Dick lay on his blanket snoring softly and unaware of his fathers tight regime.

Alfred had gone out to buy a few things and as such left the tot home seeing as Bruce would be there.

Every once in a while Bruce would glance at his son making sure the baby was still asleep before losing himself once more in his work-out.

It wasn't long before a pair of standard black loafers entered his vision as Alfred quietly announced his presence. Letting out a well timed breath to relax his muscles Bruce looked up through sweaty bangs to catch the look on the old mans face. An eyebrow raised the butler cleared his throat before subtly nodding toward where Dick was sleeping. Bruce followed the gaze and almost collapsed on the mats.

Dick, who he assumed had woken up earlier was on his tummy. The baby must have seen him and that had piqued his interest. The baby on his tubby tummy and was now copying him. Chubby arms held straight below him, the baby had started to push himself up and down in his effort to imitate his dad. Both men stared at the cute sight, watching the determined look on the tiny face as his little arms strained to hold himself and his body weight up.

It wasn't long before the baby noticed the stillness of the others in the room before looking up. He gave a small lazy smile at the two men before focusing his attention on his daddy once more waiting for something else. Bruce nodded to Alfred before continuing his push-ups hiding the small proud smile that painted his lips as from the corner of his eyes he could see Dick doing the same.

* * *

**Wally:**

"Beebee." The three year old pointed to the baby before turning to his uncle.

"Unka' look at beebee!" The tiny red head smiled and Barry smiled back.

"That's right, say hi baby."

"Hi beebee!" The toddler chirped as the baby sitting on the blanket seemed to zero in on the red head. Bruce had thought he could spend a quiet after noon with his son in his study but a certain speedster had other ideas. He watched as Wally propped himself down in front of his son.

"Uhm-pa!" The baby greeted out which Wally giggled to.

"I'm Wally! You're beebee!" The three year old announced before taking the wagging fists.

Seeing the two getting along the blond man turned to the other at hand.

"Hiya Bats!" The man scowled at that and the blond speedster chuckled nervously.

"Uh, sorry about that, force of habit. I meant 'Hiya Bruce'. Sorry to barge in like this but Iris kinda left me with Wally today and I thought it'd be good to have him meet Dick, you know, like a play-date." The brunet grunted out in irritation but seeing the way Dick and Wally seemed to be having fun just blabbing to each other eased his temper. Alfred did mention that it'd be healthy to have Dick interacting with other kids. Bruce remembered his exact words were _'Just because some people choose to live as a hermit with an emotionless companion does not mean he has to grow up as one_.' Of course Bruce had found that a bit offending seeing as he did go out on occasions to parties and balls until Alfred had raised a brow and continued _'I was talking about me, sir_' and walked away.

"Besides, it'll be good for Wally as much as Dick." Barry continued, hoping any of the reasons he was spewing out would get to the other man. In truth he was just bored at home and did the first thought that came to him.

Bruce didn't need any more convincing seeing his baby boy laughing loudly at the funny faces the toddler was making. Puffing his cheeks out and shouting about puffer fishes.

"Aww…that's cute." Barry sighed, warmth spreading through his chest. Bruce silently agreed before nodded to a nearby couch, a little further away from the two but close enough to watch them on the floor. Alfred came in the room at that time giving a soft smile at the two before offering the two older men tea and cake before excusing himself to make some cookies. Barry drooled at the thought.

"Ow!" At that the two men turned to see Dick with his tiny fists wrapped in Wally's red hair, pulling the toddlers head down to his belly and resting his chin Wallys head while trying to chew on the other childs hair.

"Ow Un'ka Bawwy! He's eating me!" The red head cried out desperately, unable to pull away because of the pain it caused as Dick seemed to get excited and pulled on the strands even harder.

The two men stood up immediately and Bruce quickly but gently unfurled his sons fist as Barry pulled the crying toddler into his arms.

"Un'ka Bawwyy I don't wike him no more, he's bad!" The red haired wailed, his words slurring further from being upset.

"No Wally, don't say that, he's just a baby." The speedster tried to soothe the crying child, swaying him around while rubbing his head hoping to ease the pain. He laid a soft kiss on where he knew Dick had pulled the strands and slowly the toddler stopped his wails.

"Un'ka Bawwy." He sniffled looking up with bright green eyes. "I wanna go home to aunty Iwis." Barry sighed, so much for fun.

"Sorry about that." Bruce bit his lip, Dick still in his hands as he seemed to be wiggling around trying to reach out for Wally. Wally pouted burrowing himself in his uncles chest and away from the baby

Barry never thought he'd hear those words from Batman himself shook his head.

"Nah, its fine. Kids will be kids ya know. Besides, they seemed to be getting along before that." Bruce nodded relived that the other man was so forgiving.

"So been into hair pulling huh?" Barry chuckled, so amused about Batman having to deal with a mischievous child.

"Yeah, Roy and another child, a girl." Bruce admitted positioning the child in his arms as he tried to wiggle out.

Barry raised an eyebrow before looking down at his nephew.

"The other kid, did she have red hair?" He implored carefully remembering Roy from a meeting with Oliver. Bruce frowned before nodding slowly. Barry snorted out a laugh earning a glare from the Bat.

"Sorry, it's just aren't you starting to see a pattern here?" Bruce looked down at his baby trying to remember all of the books he'd read on about babies and the behaviors they may have picked up, did Dick pick it up from him? Or maybe he was starting to act out? At this age?

Barry continued on with a smile on his face seeing the Batman's thinking face on the stony face, this was too hilarious.

"Come on Bruce," He cajoled having too much fun with the other man to remember who was in front of him and what he could do, "you're the detective." The other man stayed quiet not wanting to admit that he didn't know why his son was doing what he did, or what the pattern was. He looked at the toddler in the speedsters arms who hid his face on his uncles shoulders when he noticed the look. Before turning back to the previous children that Dick had attacked.

"Bruce…" The blond finally interrupted, "the kid has a thing for red-heads." He explained seeing Bruce look down at Dick before an emotion Barry thought looked like panic cross his eyes.

**TBC…**

**AN: **I love the fact that Dick has a thing for redheads, it's hilarious. Also, I know Bruce would probably connect the dots easily about Dick liking red-heads, but lets just have some fun shall we?


	13. Three Strawberries and a blueberry pt 1

**Note:** Hey everyone, I'm sorry for leaving you guys without a warning but I was so busy this month. Let's just say I had a wedding to attend to on a different island and I was the maid of honor. I moved to a new home with no internet connection (even now I just try to catch off of my neighbors) and I've been doing side projects for work that I had to finish off at home, especially since we're switching to a new system at work. I'll still be pretty busy but please do not worry; I've promised myself I will finish all of my stories here in fanfiction.

Hope you all enjoy. And hopefully this will make up the not so fluffy meeting that Dick had with Roy and Wally.

* * *

If Bruce could blame someone for this, it would be Alfred. Fortunately he was smart enough to keep this fact to himself. The said man was after all the same one who cooked his dinner, drew his bath and cleaned his weapons. So he couldn't exactly openly blame him. It didn't mean that he was comfortable with the whole idea. Not when he was forced to associate with The Flash and Green Arrow outside of their super hero personas. It wasn't the he didn't trust them, it was already established that he did, but no matter how much a part of Batman was to him, it didn't mean that he wanted his son to be part of that world. If anything, he didn't want his son in that world at all. Wasn't it bad enough that Clark was stopping by every week? Apparently not. Ever since the league had met Dick, they had taken it as an invitation to come into his home as they please.

"Master Bruce." The cool tone called behind him, the voice held an edge of a stiff scolding as he backed away from the door and let the two men in. Barry greeted the butler first, his arms holding a sleeping three year old. Ollie entered with a substitutive nod for a greeting as he practically had to pull his young charge in.

"Good afternoon gentlemen. Since Master Bruce seemed to have forgotten his amenities to guests I'd like to thank you for accepting our offer." Alfred raised an eyebrow at the brooding man behind him and Bruce grunted, though in agreement or not remained to be seen.

After seeing Dick's attitude with the other children Bruce had assumed that Dick probably didn't like other kids and opted to just leave it at that. Alfred however reasoned that the baby had acted the way he did was because the young master did not know how to be around other children. 'Maybe,' the butler suggested 'it would be best if young Master Dick had acquaintances around his own age.' Bruce had shook off the idea, but there was a reason Alfred was a butler to Batman. No one says no to Alfred Pennyworth.

Bruce shifted his weight on his foot, unmindful that he looked like an impatient child. He eyed the two men now in his home with their young charges.

Barry gave a smile to the dark haired man as he slowly woke up the sleeping toddler, earning a small whine before the strawberry haired boy finally opened his eyes.

"Come on Wally, we're here." The toddler looked around the large estate, green eyes taking in the whole grandeur of the mansion.

"Castwe?" He asked his uncle, his imagination running to the conclusion courtesy of the cartoon he had watched the night before. Barry laughed at the cute assumption.

"Yeah, it is like a castle huh?" He carefully nudged the toddler's attention to the other men in the room.

"You remember Dickie?" The toddler looked up to Bruce, recognition in his eyes as he quickly buried his face away from the intimidating man.

"Bad baby." The toddler pouted.

"No Wally, he's not bad."

"Yes, he is." Another voice piped up and all four men and toddler looked down to the other red haired child. Ollie had quickly covered the kid's mouth with his hand.

"A joke… he's joking." The child shaking his head side to side however spoke otherwise.

Bruce sighed inwardly; Dick was such a happy and friendly child from what he had gathered. He was always excitable when he met new people, a smile always ready to be given; at times Bruce admits that it was off-putting that his own son could share the same smile he gave his father to everyone else. Then again, Alfred always did tell him that he was just a bit over the realm of possessive when it came to things he considered his. Yet even a friendly baby like Dick seemed to have gotten his ability to make friends as he could not befriend anyone his age. Well, there was Barbara, but that was because unlike the boys she had been more understanding and forgiving…_maybe _Alfred was right. Maybe because Dick had never had any interactions with other children before that he seemed to just attack them every time he met one. It was probably just coincidence that all the kids he had met had red hair.

"So uh, where is Dick?" Ollie asked trying to change the subject, his hands no longer around Roy's mouth but instead laid itself on his shoulder in warning.

"He's sleeping, I'll get him." Bruce answered, wanting any excuse to leave the other heroes. He headed towards his bedroom where he had been watching over Dick earlier. The baby lay on his crib still asleep. Bruce stepped toward the grand crib and gently lifted the baby into his arms. He laid Dick's head on his shoulder and he patted his diapered bottom to wake him.

"Dickie?" He whispered quietly still unsure on some of his parenting. "Come on, wake up, there are a few people here for you." The baby kicked his legs in answer, a habit of his while waking up before he lifted his head back to look at his dad.

"Hello there." Bruce smiled, the baby blinked at him sleepily before he gave him back a lazy smile, a good sign. The baby suddenly gave a little yawn, his tiny mouth rounding in a perfect 'o' before tiny hands began clumsily rubbing his eyes.

"You awake now chum?" The baby looked at him for a bit longer before laying his head on his dad's chest once again. Bruce chuckled at the gesture, laying a light kiss on the head.

"Well, I hope that means you're in a good mood. Hopefully that means no attacking the people you're about to meet." The baby listened quietly, the rumble of his father's voice vibrating on his ear and making him smile.

"Dickie, you ready to meet them?" Bruce questioned one more time as a tiny hand suddenly went up to rest on his daddy's mouth, patting the moving lips.

"Ahh-be-ba." The baby replied, as if saying 'you said that already' Bruce playfully kissed the tiny hand. Dick had been making a lot more noise that seemed to border on actual words now. And as excited as Bruce was, the awaited 'dada' had not been one of them, though the baby had once pointed at a robin in his picture books and sounded out a 'buu' sound as if saying bird. Bruce had been ecstatic, not only videotaping the occurrence but making the baby say the words over and over until Dick had gotten tired of it.

Bruce walked to the living room knowing that was where Alfred had probably taken Barry and Ollie. Once Dick finally saw his guests he lifted his head once more, now a bit more awake. He began to bounce in his fathers' hold pointing a finger at Ollie and Barry and waving his hands excitedly. The two men smiled and waved back. Bruce noticed though that the two red haired children had sunk back, Roy hiding behind Ollie's legs and Wally bunching his uncles' shirt and covering his face with it, or at least trying to.

Bruce could feel himself mentally rubbing his temples at the reaction. The first meeting with the vivacious baby had been imprinted in their minds and it wasn't a very good one.

It took the baby no time to notice the two strawberry haired boys. Their hair really wasn't subtle if they wanted to hide. A large toothless grin spread on the baby's face followed by an excited squeal as he tried to kick himself out of his father's large arms and toward the boys.

Bruce didn't think that the two toddlers could sink back any further. He was wrong. Wally had wrapped his stubby arms around Barry's neck, almost choking the blond man. While Roy had fully hidden himself behind Ollie, probably hoping the baby wouldn't be able to see him anymore, the tuffs of red hair sticking out didn't exactly do the trick.

Dick, still a smile on his face laughed and clapped his dimpled hands. He buried his tiny face on the crook of Bruce's neck before lifting it again to see if the boys would do the same. It dawned on all the men that Dick had thought he was playing peek-a-boo with the boys. When Dick saw that the two boys weren't peeking out he turned wide blue eyes towards Bruce.

"Boo?" He questioned in his tiny voice and Bruce practically melted. Bruce shook his head slowly hoping the baby understood that no, they weren't playing with him.

Dick tilted his owl round head before turning his eyes back to the two boys. It took two seconds for Dick's lips to form in a deep pout before he broke out in a cry. Bruce was quick to rock the infant, rubbing circles on the baby's back as he tried to sooth his hurt feelings.

"Shhh…hush Dickie, its ok." He turned away from the other men trying to mask his slight panic. What could he do? It wasn't like he could turn to the men and demand that their children do exactly what his son wanted. Well he probably could but he was sure it would drive the two children farther away from his son.

Barry and Ollie watched on, both at lost at what to do. They didn't know if they should tell the two to just be friends, or let them be. Kids tended to have their own schedule and they really didn't want to make the situation any worse if the kids slipped up. Batman, was bad enough, but to have a Batman protecting his young? They shivered at the thought.

Bruce who continued to pat and bounce his son could feel his face getting hot from both desperation and embarrassment, he had gained confidence in dealing with Dick for the months that he had him, but the now wiggling crying child would not stop. Panicked yet too proud to show it, the thought to cancel the play date and send the others away crossed his mind. Maybe this really wasn't such a good idea.

Seeing his masters rising doubts Alfred cleared his throat to catch the man's attention.

"Master Bruce if I may?" The butler asked hands splayed open to accept the child. Bruce ready to try anything to stop his sons tears handed him to his butler. The three men watched as Alfred walked toward the two red heads with Barry slowly putting down the three year old next to Roy while Ollie peeled the child from his legs. The two red heads seemed to cower as the butler walked closer with the baby in hand. And to Bruce and the others amazement, the crying child seemed to settle.

The baby open and closed his palms in a gesture of wanting to be embraced, the two red heads seemed to look at each other before Roy being the oldest, put on a brave face and crept closer. To everyone's surprise and Alfred's slight panic, Dick had jumped out of the grandfatherly mans arms and latched himself on the boys' neck. Settling himself in the small arms. Roy, who had been pushed back momentarily by the weight had found his footing and was able to carry his bearings long enough to pull himself to wrap his tiny arms around the fat baby in his arms.

Dick nuzzled himself on the redheads shoulder, giggling a little before seeming to lay a wet kiss on the boy's cheek.

"Well young sir," the old man said, a warm smile on his face, "it seems that Master Dick wanted to apologize. To both of you." He nodded to the other child. The tinier red head seeing that the other was not in danger, moved forward.

The baby turned to him before offering a hand. Wally gave a laugh before going on his tippy toes to give the baby a kiss on the cheek, an acceptance of the apology.

"There now." The butler stood, setting the baby a bit more in Roy's arms before stepping away to show the three men the now happy children. The butler almost laughed at the surprised stares. Really, if three children who had a bad first impression could get along, so could three grown men who had known each other for years and had watched each others back. Seriously, Alfred sighed, sometimes even children can be more adult than some men.

"Well, gentlemen, there is coffee waiting for you in the living room, and the play room has been set up for the kids, if you'd kindly take the children to settle there. We do have one more guest we are waiting on."

Barry who held a large grin on his face was the first to break off from the small group they had unknowingly made in watching the kids make up. He bent down next to the boys.

"You ok now little guy?" He asked the baby who only smiled at him before he stuck a thump in his mouth in contentment. He turned to his own nephew.

"You got a new friend now huh Walls?" The toddler nodded.

"Baby say sowwy." He nodded at his own words as if saying he accepted the apology.

"Yeah, that's right, and you have Roy now too." The smaller red head continued to nod before grabbing on to the older red heads shirt.

"Yea, Woy is my fwen too."

"Yeah, you have so many friends now, and you know what?" The boys green eyes widen at the words as if expecting something amazing.

"What?" He asked excitement clear on his face.

"You'll meet another one later, and you guys are gonna play together and eat yummy food together." The boy grinned up at the prospect of food and turned to his friends.

"You heaw that Dickie, Woy, wewe gonna eat cookies and ice cweam!" He squealed making Roy nod at his tiny friend. Dick not really understanding what was making the two boys so excitable bounced nonetheless in celebration.

Barry wished Wally hadn't made that assumption; he opened his mouth to correct him when he was interrupted by Alfred.

"Cookies are on the menu, young sirs, however ice cream at the moment remains to be seen." The two older boys cheered at the confirmation of cookies, "maybe if your guardians agree, we can fit ice cream on there, hm?" The boys nodded (Dick nodding along) before Barry pulled his nephew into his arms.

Bruce finally stepped forward ready to take his son out of the struggling boys hold as Dick looked up at him with a smile. Bruce gave back a faint smile, taking the baby back. The sight of his son in his circle of new friends made him realize something.

Maybe… Maybe Alfred was right. Heck who was he kidding? Alfred was always right. And maybe that wasn't always a bad thing. Sure it was different, growing up he had always pushed himself away from company, even now. Not only did it keep him sane and unattached from everyone, it completely cut him off from the lives of people he cared about and stunted his ability to connect with humanity. He had always counted that as a victory (wherein villains could not use anything against him that way) but he understood now that that was not the life he wanted for Dick.

He may have been content with his own life the way it was, but not his son. He wouldn't want to wish it on him. He wanted Dick to have a normal childhood, the childhood he had lost so violently before he was even ready. He wanted his son to have friends, to be able to make strong connections and live his life as a stable young man. A chance he had never given himself.

As he started up the stairs he looked back at the two men following him up.

Friends huh?

**TBC… **


End file.
